One for the team
by robinh
Summary: It can't go on like this. Especially when recently it's getting worse. They'll have to solve it somehow. They'll have to take one for the team. After all, safety comes first.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just borrowing for fun...

**A/N**: I'm not sure if this story will be a one shot, or a multi-chapters one yet. I was very busy lately and had no time to think about complicated story lines. I'm not even sure if this story is any good. I'll probably wait to hear what you think first. Reviews will be much appreciated, and helpful.

* * *

She gets hurt. Again. After he swore he will never let it happen again. But they have the guy in custody and she's taking him towards the car, when he jumps her, handcuffs and all and pushes her over the edge of the cliff. He sees the whole thing, her slender body disappearing behind the edge, and he runs, mortified, towards the spot, shouting to Chin and Danny for help. They get there to find her hanging on a rock, feet dangling in the air, and blood on her arm. He lies down on the ground, and reaches for her. When she climbs on top of him, using his body as a ladder, he can feel her hot breath on his neck, and smell her unique scent, of salt and coconut and something else he can't recognize. It's a good thing he's lying on his stomach at that particular moment.

After she's up, he still lies there breathing deeply for a few moments, relaxing to the notion that she's alive and safe again. He wakes up from his trans, when he hears Danny shouts to her not to touch the suspect, and put away her fucking gun. Personally he thinks her response is quite reasonable, but he'd learned enough by now, not to mention this in front of Danny.

()()()

"How's your arm?" he asks when she opens the door. It took them a while to persuade her to get checked in the hospital, and it was Chin's intervention with his deep voice which made her listen to reason, eventually.

"Obviously, it's just a scratch" she tells him annoyingly, turning away and leaving the door open. She wants him to come in, apparently, which is less than desirable. He didn't mean to stay or anything, just make sure she's fine... he really tries to avoid being alone with her if possible, for obvious reasons.

"...why do you all treat me like a I'm some kind of a fragile doll?" she asks when he enters her living room, and he realizes he probably missed a crucial part of the conversation with his hesitation at the door.

"I don't..." he starts to defend himself.

"You're the third one to visit me toady" she points out, and he can't help the small pain of disappointment he feels with her statement.

"I just wanted to make sure you're OK" he says. "You almost fell 600 feet down a cliff, and I can quite clearly see the wound in your arm" he says pointedly.

"Like you weren't hurt before, too" she accuses, her voice raises in indignation.

"It's not the same" he says, exasperatingly, but he knows he'd said the wrong thing, the minute it comes out.

"Maybe you should go" she tells him, tries to control her anger "I'm fine, really. I'll see you at work tomorrow"

There's a heavy silence when they look at each other in defiance, until eventually he nods and walks out of the house.

"That went well" he tells himself as he climbs his truck. The fact that she didn't actively thrown him out, or slapped him, makes it partially true.

()()()

They are sitting on the beach. The ocean stretches in front of them, and the wind plays with their hair. She can hear the humming of the waves and smell the distinct smell of the sea and she inhales deeply. His arm slides around her shoulders, and he bends down to touch his lips to her neck, making her heart beat faster and sends shivers down her spine. His hand moves to grab her neck and she turns her head towards him, feeing his hot breath on her face. But when he smiles his beautiful sexy smile, and almost presses his lips to hers, she suddenly hears her phone rings. Her phone! her fucking phone! she opens her eyes quickly, and suddenly there is no beach, no sea, and she's alone in her bed, tangled in the sheets. Aahhhh ! not again... Theses dreams are coming everyday now. She means, common, she didn't have a single night without dreaming about him in the last three fucking weeks. How can a girl keep up with this torment? at least today it was the slow romantic kind. Normally she has to endure the adult M rated version. Don't get her wrong, she's a real fan of that other version, but there's a limit to the number of times she can be late for work after spending half the morning taking cold showers. She curses her luck when she hears her actual phone ringing again, and she scrambles towards the edge of the bed to answer it.

"Kalakaua" she breaths, still edgy and wound up.

"Kono, we have a case" she hears him spit out without an introduction, or at least some half hearted apology for waking her up at... 4:30 in the morning, and she tries to suppress the groan of frustration that comes out of her mouth.

"Sure we do..."

"Don't whine. I got enough abuse from Danny already" she bets he did. "I'm sending you the location now. Get Chin, would you?".

"Yes sir" she says in what she hopes is a professional but mildly joyful tone, but he's already off the line. His telephone etiquette is nearly as bad as his regular manners.

()()()

They are following a lead on a group of drugs smugglers. They have good intel about a shipment coming in to a small abandoned marina, and they get organized for a night stakeout. They spread around the doc, with Danny and Chin monitoring the water, and Steve and Kono hiding in one of the small boats tied to the platform. It takes hours, and they just sit there in the dark. Not talking, listening to the waves breaking, and wait. It's a small boat, and there's not enough room for the both of them, so they are pressed together, holding their guns, legs and arms touching, and in the quietness of it all the only sound she hears is his breaths, which for some reason sound more ragged than she would have expected. She wonders if he can hear her own breaths coming rapid and uneven with the excitement caused by his proximity. She hasn't got a lot of time to wonder about that though, because there's a sound of an upcoming speed boat, and when the deal gets rolling, they are all over the bad guys with guns and lights, and she is drawn into the action in no time. When the boat tries to leave, with the drugs, Steve jumps from the doc, and fights the guy holding the steering wheel. They both end up in the water, and when Danny and Chin pull the knocked out drug dealer out, and help Steve back on dry land, she sees his wet tee shirt clings to his muscular broad chest. She curses the way his appearance causes her to tremble a little, and the way the sensation is even stronger with the rush of adrenaline from the drugs bust, and she knows she's being ridiculous, and unprofessional, and really straggle to calm down. But when he takes off his wet tee shirt, and stands there in the lights with a perfect, naked upper body, she knows it's a lost cause.

()()()

They run after a suspect in the middle of the street. It's busy, and there's people around so they can't risk shooting him. They tuck their guns and sprint after him. Danny lets it go first, stopping a random car, to support the chase from the road, Chin uses his bike, and it's only him and Kono who keeps with running between the people, avoiding strollers and small children, and still maintaining visual contact with the suspect. He looks at her, giving chase, her long legs carries her effortlessly, and she looks like she's flying. She's amazing. So beautiful and strong, and he feels tightness in his throat when he sees her giving her best effort. Until the stupid guy climbs over a tall fence and jumps into a school yard nearby. They get to the fence, and she's climbing without hesitation, he gets first to the top though, and offers her a hand, but she dismisses him urgently, telling him to keep running. She's right, because the next time he looks, she's right beside him again, and she's smiling triumphantly.

The damn suspect gets out of the school yard and jumps down a big slope of grass, leading to the highway. They jump after him, rolling and tumbling down the slope. It's painful, and dangerous, but he hears her laughing, and he laughs too.

When the stupid guy gets to the highway, instead of stopping, he barges into the main road, and tries to cross it. They stop, short of breath, looking at the suicidal lunatic, stuck in the middle of the busy traffic, and Steve pull out his cell phone to call Chin and Danny and let them know where to go and grab him. The guy is too courageous for his own good, because he actually manages to cross two lanes already, and he tells Danny and Chin to hurry, or they might lose him. Only when he raises his head again, and looks at Kono, she's nowhere near him. She's actually climbing the posts sign above the road. The big one, that goes all the way to the other side, and it's probably the most exciting thing he'd ever seen, because she's walking slowly on the big metal installment, 25 feet above the busiest highway on the island, without missing a beat.

She gets to the other side, exactly two seconds after that crazy bastard they were chasing is climbing up the opposite slope. And if he thinks he had enough surprises for one day, he is sadly mistaken, because his favorite rookie just tap once on the guy's shoulder, and when he turns around, makes the most graceful, elegant backside kick he had ever seen, and knocks him out cold. He can't remember a single moment in his life when he felt so turned on. He falls to his knees trying to catch his breath.

()()()

She knows it's getting worse. She's not stupid. She can't avoid the realization that it's so severe right now, she can't even be with him in the same room without feeling her body react. She chokes, and her pulse raises, and she has ringing in her ears, and the fact that she can actually concentrate on the details of the cases is no less than a miracle.

"This can't be healthy" she tells herself one morning when she sees him enter HQ, feeling like her whole body becomes reflexively more sensitive and alert.

"What can't?" Chin asks curiously. Shit. She didn't realize she was not alone.

"Nothing" she says quickly, blushing a little.

"You look flushed" Chin says worriedly "are you sick?" That's one way to put it. More like on the verge of losing her mind, actually.

"I don't think so" she says, smiling "don't worry about me"

"Malia is coming to take me to lunch. I'll ask her to take a look at you" he informs her. Yeah. That's just awesome.

()()()

When Malia comes, she takes her to her office. She tries to explain she's fine, and Chin is just being... well, being Chin, looking after her like she's still three years old or something. But Chin's overly protectiveness must be infectious because Malia is even worse, and it's not even five minutes, until she's already taking her temperature and blood pressure. It's quite unfortunate, really, that she's still hooked to the damn blood pressure machine, when she sees Steve comes out from his office and talks to Chin. He indicates towards her office with a worried expression, and looks like he's pissed off or something. These fucking glass doors. She's going to break them one day. All of them. And have them changed into something more appropriate, like armed concrete, for example.

A blood pressure of 180 is probably too high for Malia's liking, because she's looking at her in alarm, just in time to catch the inappropriate way she looks at her boss. Before she has time to deny it, it looks like Malia had already reached a diagnosis. Fucking hell.

"Congratulations! you're in love" she declares, smiling "I suggest you eat a lot of chocolate, stay away from the sun and _tell him_".

"I'm not" she denies, but there's no conviction there, apparently, because Malia just shrugs happily. "I'm not..."

"Kono" Malia stops, and looks at her tenderly "it's not ideal, but you two are actually quite perfect for each other. You know, in a strange, violent, reckless kind of way. You should_ tell him_. Don't waste time. Believe me, I know what happens when you waste time..."

"Maybe it's just... you know..." she says sheepishly, daring a quick look towards the smart table, where he still stands, arms crossed looking worriedly at her office. For god sakes, doesn't he have something better to do with his time?

"You mean... maybe it's just... the... _attraction_?"

"Yeah" that's should cover it. Attraction. That's the word to describe the fact that she lies awake at night imagining his hands roaming all over her body, and the constant urge she has to lick his neck every time she fucking sees him.

"Again, only one way to find out" Malia says, her hand on the door knob. "_Tell him!_"

"No. I don't think it will be good for the team" she tells her, decisively.

"Kono, by the look of the two of you, and by the amount of stress I'm sensing here, it's _already_ not good for the team" she's got a point there, she totally admits it.

()()()

She knocks on his door late in the evening, waiting anxiously for him to open. When he finally does, he's dressed only in his grey sweatpants, drying his hair with a towel. He smells of sweat, and the ocean, and she knows he was exercising.

"For god's sake" she spits out, when she pushes through him towards the living room "is there something wrong with your shirts? I'll buy you some, if it's such a big issue" She really wanted to be drunk enough before she does it, but by the look of him, she might be pushed to act much earlier than planned.

"Come on in" he says, to her retreating back, as he closes the door.

He finds her pacing around the living room, anxiously, and realizes she is carrying a brown bag with her.

"What's in the bag?" he asks, trying to avoid the more obvious puzzling parts of her being there, in case she'd lash out at him for asking stupid questions. It has happened before. Recently, she's been snaping at him every single day, on various things. He tried to ask Chin if something was wrong with her, because he thinks it all started after Malia's visit, but Chin promised everything was fine. He had briefly entertained the idea of putting her on a forced leave of absence, when he thought he saw her reaching for her gun in one of their arguments, but he was too scared to actually offer it.

"Vodka" she says, like it should be obvious. It isn't.

They stand there in the living room, eyeing each other, and he tries to think about something to say.

"Would you like to sit down?" he asks politely, indicating towards the couch.

She looks at him thoughtfully. "Sure. That could work" she says enigmatically, and sits down.

He sits beside her, but makes sure to keep his distance. He remembers SEALS operations that caused him less anxiety.

She takes the bottle of Vodka from the bag and hands it to him. He drinks once. feeling the burning sensation in the back of his throat, and hands it back to her. She does the same, moving her hand over her mouth absentmindedly. He can't help but gazing at her lips. He probably lets his stare linger for a moment, because he misses her next move, suddenly finds her on top of him, pushing him down on the couch and kissing him violently. He's so surprised, he can't move initially, and then he can't help but holding her forcefully, and kissing her back. They kiss hard, and hurriedly, their teeth knocking, and their tongues mingling, fighting for dominance inside each other's mouths. He puts his hand on her back beneath her top, pulling the garment upwards, almost tearing it with the rushed way he tries to discard of it, when suddenly he realizes what is happening, and stops.

"What are you doing?" his voice is hoarse and shaky, his arms holds her forcefully against his naked chest, as if the instructions from his brain to stop, didn't quite reach them yet.

"I'm sorry" she says breathlessly, still kissing him violently, attacking his neck now "I have to do it. For the team..."

"What?!" he pushes her off him, holding her by her shoulders, effectively hanging in the air above him.

"We have to have sex" she says seriously. "I can't go on like this, the tension is killing me" she kicks him between his legs, not too hard, but enough to make him loosen his grip on her, and manages to have him release her arms long enough for her to capture his head between her hands. Her knee stays near his groin, and she's happy to discover he's not entirely indifferent to her actions.

"We have a dangerous job" she whispers, kissing his jaw line gently, and hears him gasp in response "I have to stay focused" she licks his neck slowly, and kisses the rapid pulsations beneath his beautiful muscles "if I keep thinking about fucking your brains out every single time I see you, someone might get hurt..." she bites his lower lip, a little bit harder than necessary, and he stifles his groan from the pain, looking at her behind his long eyelashes. "So you see?" she hisses behind her teeth, "I'm doing it for the team, and as a responsible team leader, I think you should comply".

She kisses him gently this time, moving her tongue along his lower bruised lip, and licking tenderly around his teeth, touching his tongue slowly, dancing sensually inside his mouth, when he relaxes to it gradually, and returns the kiss as well.

Their kiss is warm and slow and intoxicating, and it's definitely not what she had in mind when she planned to fuck it all out of her system. When they stop to catch their breaths, and look at each other, he reaches for her face, and gently brushes her hair away. He touches her swollen lips with his thumb, and she almost cries from the tenderness she finds in his eyes. She wants to escape, and makes a sudden movement to get off of him, but he holds her arms forcefully, and looks pointedly into her eyes.

"It's for the team, right?" he states more than asks, and she nods, even though she's not so sure anymore. "Well... I'm nothing but a team player, after all..."

He smiles his regular beautiful, wonderful smile, the one that makes her sing inside every time she sees it, and she smiles back, and kisses him again, and they spend the next hour on the couch, and the next two in his bedroom, and in the morning, when Danny calls him about a case, he kisses her shoulder and whispers "wake up, babe, we have to go to work".


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Thank you all for your kind words, and appreciation. I'm overwhelmed with the responses, and your support. It will be a multi chapter piece after all. I have a basic idea where it's going, but I will love, as always to hear from you what you think.

Hope you'll like it.

* * *

She wakes up to him kissing her shoulder and whispering something in her ear. She feels the warmth of his breath traveling slowly on her shoulder and her neck, his soft lips caressing her skin, and his hand touching her exposed abdomen, sliding agonizingly slowly down towards her... FUCK!

"What are you doing?!" she opens her eyes in alarm, and grabs his traveling hand with her own.

"hhmm... waking you?" his surprised expression looks almost comical, only she fails to see the humor here.

"Don't!" she jumps out of bed, with a speed that is much too challenging for her current state of reduced coordination, and finds herself unexpectedly, sitting naked on the floor.

"Are you OK?" he looks curiously at her over the side of the bed.

"I'm fine" she mumbles, rising from the floor, realizing she is naked, and snatching the sheet from the bed to cover herself. It's not a flawless tactic, because it leaves him lying there naked, and she is momentarily distracted by his glorious body. Until she remembers what's going on here and gets a grip on herself.

He lies on his elbows, watching her in confusion as she runs around the room frantically, lifting blankets and pillows, checking under the bed, and under the dresser, mumbling continuously to herself.

"Oh fuck! Oh fuck! This is not good. This is so fucking bad. What was I thinking? I knew it was a stupid mistake the moment I thought about it..." she goes on mumbling away, and he can't even keep track on her words anymore. He hears words like 'disaster', 'tragedy' and 'mental illness', and he thinks it all sounds suspiciously similar to the things he hears from Danny.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Can't you see? I wasn't even drunk, for god's sake!" she stops and stares at him miserably, expecting him to share her sense of impending doom. Only he can't really see any problem here. _He_ personally thinks last night was fucking great, and he's just about to share with her his glass half full interpretation of the recent events, when she stops suddenly and looks at him in disbelief.

"Why are you naked?!" she asks, mortified.

"I..."

"Will you please put your underwear on? Jeez! can't a girl get a break around here?" she continues with her obsessive scanning of the room, while he goes to the dresser, pulls his boxer shorts, and does as he's told.

"Kono. What the hell is wrong with you?" he asks again, trying to stop her crazy mumbling, and her advanced state of hysteria.

"What is wrong with me? are you fucking kidding me?" she points her finger to his chest, "I just had sex with my fucking boss, in his fucking bed, I'm naked, I can't find my clothes, and I'm fucking late for work. That's what's wrong with me!" she punctuates every word she says with a painful poke to his chest, and makes him back up against the wall.

"They're in the living room" he says quietly.

She looks confused at his statement, until she realizes he is talking about her clothes. When she huffs and turns around to walk downstairs, she pulls the sheet around her, in what she knows is a pathetic attempt to maintain the remnants of her dignity.

()()()

the pictures hanging along the staircase are all skewed. One of them is actually broken, and she has to fight to suppress last night's memory of Steve carrying her naked up the stairs with an uninhibited urgency.

When she gets to the living room, she finds it in a similar state, pillows on the floor, a chair thrown in the corner, the carpet is pushed to one side and their clothes are scattered around the room. She starts collecting her belongings and to get dressed.

When she's almost decent, and starts looking for her shoes, she hears Steve coming to the living room. He's already dressed and organized, and just stands there, watching her silently. When she risks a quick look at his face she sees him serious and thoughtful, and she starts to feel a little bit guilty with everything.

"It was a mistake" she tells him apologetically, standing in front of him fumbling with her keys.

He only raises his eyebrow at her statement.

"I shouldn't have done that..." Again, no response. He just stands there looking at her intently.

"Can we keep it between ourselves, and never talk about it again?" she says it quietly, her eyes begging him to agree. "Please?" there's still no reaction. She can't read him. His eyes are guarded, closed to her. He stares at her blankly, and she can't tell if he is angry, or sad, or just plain indifferent. It makes her feel like she betrayed him somehow. She can't explain why, but she can't think about anything else to say, so eventually she turns away and starts walking towards the door.

"Kono..." she hears his low voice from behind her, and she turns around in hope of... she doesn't even know of what.

"Chin and Danny are waiting for us at Kalihi - Palama, I'll see you there."

()()()

Now, he always thought of himself as a very strong man. And after meeting Danny and spending almost thirteen hours a day with him, subjected to his constant rants, complaints and critique, he is very proud to announce that he is practically made of steel. He means, come on, the guy's still alive, and more or less unharmed, right? So when she said she doesn't want to talk about it, he had no doubt he has no problem not to talk about it. He can practically not talk about it for centuries, if she wants. He can fucking not talk about it until he's blue in the face and fumes are coming out of his ears. It's really not a big deal. The fact that he'd started practicing for a triathlon, and the fact that in the last two weeks, since she came to his house and ruined his life, he had already ran up and down the Haʻikū Stairs five fucking times, has nothing to do with it. Steel he tells you. Forged steel.

()()()

They stand at the smart table reviewing the details of a case. Kono had done all the information gathering and she spends time explaining the infrastructure of the organization they are investigating. She has pictures of people and arrows leading from the heads of the organization to the people in the filed level, and she shows bank accounts details and flight tickets, and it all looks like a really high quality and extremely thorough detecting work that she'd done on the case.

"That's amazing, Kono" Danny says impressed.

"Yeah Cuz, it all looks very detailed with a lot of information" Chin smiles proudly at her. She smiled back shyly. It really is. She really did put all her energy into it, spent days and nights collecting the data and analyzing everything.

Hell, it's not like she's sleeping anyway, might as well do something productive with her time, right? She would have gone surfing instead of working like a pathetic high achiever obsessed freak, but it is mostly in the middle of the night, that she wakes up shivering and moaning from the memories of his hands on her body, and night surfing is inacceptable, much too dangerous even in a well balanced state of mind, not to mention in her current state of insanity. She'd might drown or something, and she's much too afraid of her mother to do that.

The cleaning people in the morning are quite certain Steve got her working night shifts by now. They got used to seeing her there in the ungodly early hours of the morning. She didn't correct them when they gave her a card with the union representatives' contacts numbers, but she honestly feels that involving city officials, after practically forcing herself on her boss, will be counterproductive. At best...

They both look at Steve in anticipation, expecting him to congratulate their rookie for the perfect job she'd done, but he says nothing. Moving some of the pictures on the screen to read the information again.

"All of you, get set" he says at last, to the three of them." I want to pay them a visit. I'll call the governor to let him know, I don't think it will go quietly".

()()()

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Depends."

"Depends? depends on what?"

"Depends on you."

"What?" Danny looks at Steve incredulously.

"Personally, I think nothing is wrong with me, but I'm sure you'll tell me differently."

"I think you are an ungrateful, self absorbed, cold hearted, son of a bitch!"

"See? I told you it depends..."

"You have no idea what I'm talking about have you?"

"Does it matter? you're simply dying to tell me anyway" of course he knows what he's talking about, but he refuses to let Danny make him feel worse than he already does.

"You couldn't tell her one word of compliment, could you. Would it have killed you to tell her what a great job she actually did?"

"Not necessarily kill, but If I knew it would prevent this conversation, I would have probably said something, believe me."

"You're hilarious!" Danny is not impressed. "You know, you can't run a team without encouraging and rewarding your men, or in this case, your women" yes that's very helpful, he truly believes he has no problem remembering Kono is in fact, a woman. "When Grace does something nice, or good, which obviously she does, all the time, because she is really an exceptional girl with a very high performance scale, by any measure, I always praise her and tell her how proud I am of her. You should really do the same. Running a team is very much like being a father..."

Yeah... suggesting he will treat Kono as his daughter. That is really way way beyond disgusting at this point.

()()()

"Are you OK?"

"I'm great, why?" she smiles towards her cousin who looks worriedly at her.

"You look sad".

"I'm not sad, brah, why would I be sad?" fuck Chin and his total dedication to her well being. Really unnecessary.

"I don't know. Malia and your mom are worried" oh yeah, and fuck her overbearing family, as well.

"My mom?"

"Yeah. She said you're avoiding her calls."

"_A call_! a _single_ god damn call! I mean, I talk to her three times a day, every single fucking day, and when I don't pick up the phone once, _once!_ she makes an issue out of it and decides that I'm avoiding her?!" because obviously, she is avoiding her, understandably. Her mother will know things are off the minute she'll hear her voice, and she will get everything out of her without even breaking a sweat, and the next thing she will do will be to go to Steve, and someone will get hurt, namely Steve. And 5-0 will remain without a leader. So you see? she totally accept that she has to avoid her mother, _for the sake of team_, even if doing things _for the team_ got her into this bloody mess in the first place.

"She probably just wants to fix you up with one of her friends' sons again" Chin tries to cheer her up and manages to elevate her anxiety level even more "she only wants to see you happy..."

"She doesn't want to see me _happy_, She want to see me _married_!" Kono reminds him bitterly. Yes. They both know that this is true.

()()()

They get to the organization's offices. And Steve makes a whole show of demanding to see the manager, and makes everyone surrender their papers and computers, and has HPD storm the place, and start gathering everything. There are a lot of shouting and arguing and threatening to call the governor, and the manager actually does call the governor, so the manager and Steve are moving the telephone receiver back and forth, in the most surreal way, until Steve has enough and hangs up.

Then the lawyers come, and start shouting as well, and they show Steve some papers and forms, and Steve is standing there all tall and authoritative, and sexy as hell and suggests, pleasantly, a specific location which they should stick their papers in.

There's one moment in the whole commotion, when she catches him looking at her happily. It's the first time he looked at her in the eyes in the last two weeks, and it makes her realize, suddenly, how much she missed him. He probably senses that it might be going to a dangerous place, because after a fraction of a second he turns his gaze away again, and all she wants to do is go to him and shake him up, and beg for things to be back as they always were. She has no option though, luckily, because there's a woman standing on the other side of the room carrying a folder and trying to go unnoticed into the corridor, so she runs after her and slams her to the wall, and when she opens the folder there are lists of contacts and sums of money in it, and she knows exactly what they are.

She takes the folder to Steve, and tells him it's the main piece of evidence they needed, and he looks at her silently, and indicates for her to continue. So she stands there in the middle of the room with five fancy lawyers and the manager in front of her, and she tries to be very clear, and to control her voice when she asks them to be quiet and informs them that they are all under arrest. It's such an amazing feeling, she feels like she's surfing. Honestly, it's the best time she had at work, which didn't involve a gun.

()()()

HPD, are doing all the heavy lifting, and taking all the computers and the files, and the people. She stands there explaining to the other cops how to collect and organize all the evidences. She feels that all her hard work had finally paid off, when she hears the HPD chief saying to Steve, how impressed he is with the results of the investigation, but it doesn't come close to the feeling she gets when she hears Steve's response. He says back that it was all her work, and she'd done very well, and mentions how lucky he was to snatch her away from HPD and take her to his team when he did. She doesn't want to overreact here, but really, his compliments are so rare, especially given their current state of cold war, it's as if they were made of gold.

()()()

When they finish everything and go back to HQ though, he is back to his old, silent, brooding self. They want to go celebrate, have a drink together, but he refuses. Mentions something about updating the governor and buggers off. She half expected it, really, but when she turns around from his distancing truck and sees Danny's pitying look, she almost cries anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and encouragements. I am grateful for your interest and your support. Please Don't be too hard on Kono, she handled it poorly, I admit it, but it was more freaking out than anything else.

Please tell me what you think.

* * *

She spends the entire day with Danny staring at her. He is staring when she works at the smart table, he is staring when she's going to the supply room to bring more pens, he's staring when she eats lunch. For crying out loud, he is practically following her to the bathroom at one point. She spends ten minutes in front of the mirror looking to see if there's something on her face, or if her shirt is transparent or something, but finds nothing. She decides that it's probably not her, it's him, and she is just about to tell him what she thinks about his rude behavior, and give him something better to stare at, when Steve comes back from his meeting with the governor, delicious and sexy with his dress pants and a buttoned up shirt, and it makes her forget how to pronounce the words.

It doesn't take a lot of time until she remembers what was the issue though, because when the three of them are standing around the smart table, listening to Steve explaining the new assignment they got from the governor, Danny is staring again. And this time he is staring at the both of them.

"Are you two having a fight?" he asks conversationally. That's a really good question, she will let her benevolent leader take this one if you don't mind.

"Of course we are not having a fight" Steve says decisively, that's really nice to hear, he could have fooled her...

"Why are you not talking to each other then?" Danny is anything but convinced.

"We _are_ talking to each other" Steve says exasperatedly "we talk to each other all the time" more like _at_ each other, if they're being completely honest here, which obviously, as reflected by Steve's answer, they are not.

"You only talk to each other about work, and always when Chin or I are in the room" there's a hint of impatience on Steve's face, and he looks like he's imagining strangling Danny to death or something. It's his fault actually, for taking the guy on his team in the first place, Danny is much too good a detective for his own health.

"Well?" he looks at them pointedly, waiting for someone to take the bait. She sees Steve's jaw starting to twitch.

"Danny" she says finally, trying to salvage the situation "there's nothing wrong. We are _not_ having a fight, we _are_ talking to each other and everything is just peachy. Can we please go back to work now?" she gives him the most appealing smile she has in her arsenal, and it looks for a second like he's going to back off. Only it's Danny, backing off is not even in his vocabulary.

"I know something fishy is going on here" he notifies them, pointing towards the two of them in disdain "and I'm going to find out what it is."

"Fine" she tells him, finally losing her patience too "why don't you continue this interesting interrogation later, when we're not trying to work. Just take me out of it, and do it with Steve, when you're both alone in the car or something. It's always good to separate the suspects and push them in a corner when you try to extract information..." the dirty look Steve is sending her when she suggests this helpful idea, probably means that they _are_ having a fight after all.

()()()

"Hi, it's me"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. Why all of you keep thinking something is wrong?"

"I'm _not_ all of _us_, I'm all of _me_, and I_ know_ something is wrong, otherwise you wouldn't have called"

"Can't a guy call his sister? does it have to necessarily mean something is wrong?"

"..."

"Ok, something _is_ wrong..." he really shouldn't have called, he is a weak, and pathetic man.

"You do realize we could have saved the last couple of minutes, right?"

"I do. I didn't realize I was wasting your precious time, though. I apologize."

"Consider yourself forgiven" Mary Ann says graciously "what happened, Steve?"

"I don't want to talk about it"

"..."

"Mar?"

"You called me because you didn't want to talk to me?" god help him, this is even worse than talking to Danny.

"I called you because I _did_ want to talk to you, I just didn't want to talk to you about this thing that is wrong. It's you who brought it up to the conversation."

"How could I bring it to the conversation?!, I don't even know what it is!"

He only groans in misery.

"Your brain is a scary scary place, Steve." she says with a sigh "I still hope for the day when we find out we're not related."

"That's very kind of you Mar. I'm so glad I called."

She probably hears something in his voice that makes her rethink the whole conversation, because suddenly she stops tormenting him and changes the topic.

"I'm glad too" she tells him, and he hears her smiling on the other side of the line "I actually wanted to tell you about my boss..."

He lies in his bed with the cell phone stuck to his ear, and listens to his sister talking. She gives him full description of her boss, who sounds like a total bitch, and of her friends who are even weirder than she is, and about an incident she had in her last flight to San Francisco, when a passenger got drunk and was risking the crew. He laughs at her descriptions and shows interest in the safety protocols, and is genuinely impressed when she describes how she approached that passenger and contained the situation. She is really nice, his sister, sometimes. He really loves her, when he doesn't want to, you know, kill her, which happens sometimes too, especially when they are not speaking or seeing one another for a while. By the end of the conversation he actually feels much better. Actually he feels so much better that he almost misses it when she tells him she is coming to the island the next week, so she could see for herself what's wrong with him. That's really nice of her. He can only blame himself for this. He suddenly remembers, he has his reserves drill coming soon, so maybe he can move it forward or something... a few weeks in the trenches with his SEAL team, diving in malaria infested swamps in south America, that honestly sounds much more appealing, not to mention much safer.

()()()

He really doesn't want to take Kono with him. But Danny left early to pick up Grace, and it's already 6:00 PM, and there's no point in dragging Chin again, making him miss dinner with his wife. He's the only member of his team that somehow manage to maintain a functional relationship, and besides, there's a kid involved, so he really has no choice. He contemplates forcing her to take her own car, but he really should fill her in about the case, if he want things to go right, so he curses his luck and steps out of his office barking towards her to tag along for the ride.

He makes sure to spend the entire time explaining about the case, and to focus on every single dreary detail he can think of, in order to fill the silence. When he watches her from the corner of his eye, listening intently and even taking notes, he is relieved to discover that they're on the same page here. With everything Danny says, and all his attempts to make Steve talk and share his feelings, he really thinks he got it all wrong, because sitting here with her, _actively_ avoiding the big uncomfortable issue that threatens to drown them, is really fucking hard. He means, he actually feels sweat dripping down his back from the effort. He should remember to tell Danny about this new insight, that silence is the real challenge in this day and age, not talking. Talking is for sissies.

He feels quite proud of himself for getting them to the witness' house in one piece, and precisely as emotionally unstable as they were when they left HQ. Yes. He is aware of the fact that he was driving 25 miles over the speed limit the entire time, but this is what you do when you don't only have a big proverbial elephant in the car with you, you have the whole fucking savanna.

()()()

Tommy is six, and he's the last one who'd actually seen his teacher alive. Chin picked up his image from the security camera and they made the identification with the school. He didn't talk about his teacher since it all happened, but he's the only witness they have, and they simply have to talk to him.

Steve is standing in the living room with the kid's parents looking out into the garden where Tommy and Kono are talking and playing football.

They play a very unique version of touch football, which includes a lot of shouting and arguing and the most flexible field lines he had ever seen. He's not normally a real stickler for the rules, but there must be some sacred lines you don't cross, right? like the markings of the end zone for example, that Tommy keeps moving every single time Kono scores.

"She's so sweet to him" Tommy's mother says to Steve. "I was terribly worried at first, when you said you'll have to talk to him, but she's really sweet and gentle. Thank you."

"She really is" Steve says more to himself than to anyone else "this is why I can't get it..."

"Get what?" they are both looking at him puzzled, and he's lost for words for a few seconds. Luckily, there's a major incident outside when Tommy changes the rules again, robbing Kono of her well deserved touchdown. Her theatrical response looks too real for his liking, and he remembers suddenly how animated she can be when it comes to football, so he steps hurriedly outside to prevent her from killing the little brat. He makes a mental note to himself to only send her to interrogate girls from now on.

"It was in, Brah" Kono holds the football high above Tommy's head, obviously annoyed.

"It was out. I saw it. It was out" Tommy declares decisively. "Did you see it? it was out!" he looks at Steve with a warning look.

"Yes, I did. It was definitely out" Steve says in a heartbeat. She knew he will take his side, fucking Men!

"Can I play too?" Steve asks carefully, purposefully avoiding Kono's surprised look.

"Are you any good?" the little prick asks arrogantly.

"He was the quarterback for the Kukui Kings" Kono says proudly "he's supposed to be _very_ good..."

"Really?" they finally get the little guy's attention.

"Go ahead" she tells them, passing the ball to Steve "I'll be the referee."

They play for a while, and it's really kind of fun, and when Kono stops being the referee and joins Tommy's team, it really starts to get interesting, because she's really fast and her lithe body is perfect for avoidance maneuvers. He really tries to do his best not to touch her, and it's basically helps them win the game at the end, and bruises his ego a little bit, but it's kinda funny the way they celebrate, making a little dance together, so he decides it was probably worth it.

They collapse on the grass to rest, drink water and analyze the game, and Kono asks Tommy what he talked about with Ms. Lee.

"I wanted to give her my drawing."

"Why?" Steve asks in confusion.

"Because it's always makes my mother happy." he looks at Steve like he's stupid or something. Unfortunately, Steve feels he is in no position to dispute that notion.

"Was Ms. Lee sad?" Kono asks gently.

"She was crying a lot" Tommy says seriously.

"Why?" Steve asks again, he feels like he's not doing so well with this specific interaction.

"Because of all the blood" Tommy says like it's self explanatory. Which it isn't. "Once, when I fell and hurt my knee, and my mom took me to the hospital, the nurse gave me a shot. Here" he indicates to his thigh. "It hurt, so I cried a little." He looks at Steve waiting to see the impression made by his story. "It wasn't because of the blood. It was because of the shot" he explains helpfully, when Steve's expression remains blank. He's not entirely sure how they got to talk about hospitals in the first place.

"I don't understand any of this" he whispers to Kono when Tommy stops talking and drinks some water.

"Just wait. He'll talk in circles for a little bit, but eventually we'll get the right order of things" Kono says, reassuring him.

"You mean... like Danny?" Steve asks, suddenly interested.

"I guess so..." she says carefully. She has to admit there is an alarming resemblance there.

"So talking in circles with unconnected sentences that make no sense, this is the whole art of speaking to children?" He can do that. Hell, he's been doing it on a daily basis for the last year and a half.

"Pretty much" she says shrugging. She's not much of an expert in this area. Personally she tends to think it involves being kind and gentle, but she doubts if that's something Steve can actually learn how to do in the next few minutes.

"So why didn't you say so?" Steve smiles smugly. He's funny when he's getting enthusiastic like that, she smiles back in amusement.

"Hey Tommy" Steve says to the kid, when he gives him back the bottle of water "where did all the blood come from? Was Ms. Lee injured?"

"Hmmmm" Tommy says, playing with his shoelace.

"That means yes" Kono whispers when he sends her a questioning look.

"Did you see who hurt her?" He asks anxiously, and Kono takes Tommy's hand in her hand and smiles at him.

"Tommy, did someone you know hurt Ms. Lee?"

"It was Mr. Carlson" Tommy says quietly, looking at Kono with two big trusting round eyes. "He pushed her down the stairs when he took her bag."

"What bag?" Steve tenses.

"The bag with all the money" Tommy says impatiently, looking at the two of them like they're crazy, or at least like they should have already known all these things. "The bag with the funny money with the green woman."

"This is getting way too weird" Steve groans towards Kono. "It doesn't sound like Danny anymore."

"Maybe he's talking about the queen?" she says suddenly "Canadian dollars?"

"Good thinking" Steve produces his cell phone and searches for the right image. "Hey buddy, this kind of money?"

"Yup..." Tommy nods matter-of-factly. Bloody hell.

()()()

It takes about two hours all together, but they get all the information they need, strangely enough, while playing some not so much touched, touch football. They even manage to be pleasant and civilized towards one another, Danny would be proud. But when they get back to the car to drive back to HQ, it's as if nothing had changed, and they are both tensed and anxious again with the enforced proximity. The entire drive back, neither say a single word.

"It's a fucking nightmare!" he says to himself after she slams the truck's door behind her, when they get back, and he parks the car. By the silence that ensues after his declaration, the notion seems to be unanimous.

()()()

Chin knocks on her office door sometime late on a Tuesday afternoon.

"Are you coming on Sunday?" he asks hopefully. "Our first luau since we got married" Chin is such a sappy mush sometimes.

"Well..." she hates to do it to him, really, but she can imagine the picture of her overbearing family meeting the other people in her life. OK who is she kidding, she can imagine them meeting Steve. The mere thought makes her dizzy. By the end of the day, she would wish she never was born.

"You have to come. Malia will kill me if you don't come" Chin smiles apologetically for being such a pushover near his wife. Luckily for him, his wife is the most gentle and loving creature ever to walk this earth. She smiles at him affectionately.

"Is Steve and Danny coming?" she asks off handedly. She realizes she is trying to divide social events with him, now. It's like she is handling a break up without even being with him on the first place. Well, being with him officially, anyway.

"Danny and Grace will be there, but Steve can't... "Chin looks disappointed "something to do with his sister." She feels a weird mix of relief and disappointment that takes her by surprise. She misses him so much these days, even when they are in the same room together, but the strain of her guilt intermingles with her constant carnal want, is taking its toll. She knows she is much safer without him around.

"Of course I'm coming" she tells Chin finally, choking a bit on the words "I wouldn't miss it for the world" Chin's satisfied look is only a partial consolation for how disgusted she is with her herself.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I want to thank everyone who took the time and wrote me some words. Your reviews are making me happy every time. I can't answer each of you personally. But I hope that you all know I am extremely thankful.

anufoalan - thanks for the tip about the Canadian money. Greatly appreciated. I fixed it immediately.

fairgirl - please don't be cross with Kono. I'll try to make her behave better.

Lydia - some Kono's mom moments, just for you.

MyOwen - thank you for the soundtrack. Your review always make me laugh.

bushi4, Shani8,TVfanatic97 - thanks for the continued support.

Sidalee- you totally right about the off stage sex night. It's just that I can't really write it the way it should be... you might be able to pull it off, if I think about it...

* * *

"You can't be serious!"

"You know, you always tell me what I can't do. I really feel like you have a very low estimation of my capabilities..."

"Is that so?" Danny looks at him in contempt. "I think I have the _precise_ estimation of you. I estimated exactly how dangerous your last stunt was going to be, didn't I?"

"It was a lucky guess..." Steve grumbles.

"Did you just called your dislocated shoulder, the blow you got to your right knee and that big purple bruise you have in your midsection _lucky_?"

"It's not my fault. I was distracted!" Steve exclaims.

"of course you were" Danny shouts back "It's quite distracting when every single lowlife in Oahu is shooting at you on the same time..."

"Don't be over dramatic Danno, not _every_ single lowlife in Oahu..."

"True. Not _every_ single lowlife, six of them were too busy breaking your bones with a two by four at that small dirty alley."

Steve sits on a gurney in the middle of the emergency department, listening to Danny's lecture with a headache that is increasing by the minute. He would readily agree that he showed poor judgment when he stormed that alley on his own with no proper backup, readily agree, just not now, and certainly not to Danny. He is the fucking higher ranking officer here after all, and he will _not_ be told what to do.

"You are not driving home on your own like this" Danny informs him, confidently. The hell he isn't.

"The hell I'm not!"

"I took your car keys when they patched you up" Danny says matter-of-factly "this is not even a discussion..."

"Danny..."

"Chin and I are going to take care of all those ridiculous arrests your irresponsible actions have produced. Kono will come to take you home." Shit! He feels like he's being punched all over again.

()()()

He feels quite miserably on the way home. And he's not completely sure if it's just the injuries and the dull pain he still has everywhere, or if it's because this is the last straw, that after the last few weeks manages to finally wreck what little control he still had on his nerves.

He will give her credit though, because she manages to stay focused, driving safely and smoothly to his house. He's not sure he would have been able to handle it in her place.

When they reach the house he tries to climb out of the car, but the blow he suffered to his right knee makes it impossible to get out without falling. The loud hiss that escapes when he tries to put some weight on it, takes them both by surprise.

"You'll have to help me out" he says quietly, after he regains his composure. He hates to ask, really, but he figures staying in her car all night is not something she would like either.

"Hang on" she says decisively, making her way to his side of the car.

They both know it's ridiculous, because his right knee is hurting, and his left shoulder is secured to his body, and the right half of his body is tender and sore, so he has no choice but to put his right arm around her shoulders, as she hugs his waist for support. He limps cautiously towards the entrance, and they don't even look at one another. Only, he can still smell the salt and the coconut, and she can feel his labored breath rambling around her. She wonders if his injuries cause him as much pain as she has right this minute, in her heart.

()()()

She opens the front door and ushers him in. She fumbles a bit with the lights, because the house is completely dark, and almost knocks a picture frame off the wall. What the hell, she tries to fight the awkward feeling she has, and holds him again in order to lead him towards the living room, she's already broken half the pictures in this house, anyway...

She examines the stairs, assessing her ability to actually help him up there in his condition, and decides against it. He will have to sleep on the couch tonight, but when they stand in the middle of the living room examining the scene, he says "You have to take me upstairs. I can't sleep here..."

"Why not?" she asks. She knows firsthand, there is certainly enough room.

"Recent memories..." he says, choking a bit on the wards, and she wonders if he means to say they were bad ones. She would rather die than actually dwell on his memory issues, or his couch, or anything, for that matter, so they start towards the stairs.

"Let's do it" she says.

()()()

It takes almost five minutes to get him up the stairs. By the end of the climb, he is so sore, he thinks he sees stars. With the rest of his strength, he lets her push him towards the bedroom where he collapses on the bed. They are still held together forcefully when he does, and she finds herself collapsing on top of him. When she gasps with the sudden sensation of finding him pressed against her, the sound makes him open his eyes in surprise. They lock eyes, accidently, and their rapidly beating hearts deafen their ears, and probably drown every coherent thought, because the next thing that happens is that she's kissing him urgently, sliding her hands from his chest to his neck, holding his jaw in one place, as she kisses and licks and sucks his mouth and lips and tongue, letting all the crazed desperation held inside her to come out in one big explosion.

He holds her left arm with his free right hand, his left hand captured between them, and he knows he should probably stop this madness, and protect himself from additional grief. Protect them both, actually. Only, he can feel how she holds him, forcefully, desperately, swallowing him with an animalistic want, while still making sure she is not hurting him, avoiding the bruises and the injuries. It makes him feel like he knows her again. Kono. His lovely, sweet, and gentle Kono. He moves his arm to engulf her shoulders, pressing her closer to him. He just can't help it.

()()()

He wakes up to her sliding out of his bed quietly, looking for her clothes. He watches her silently, getting dressed and crawling under the bed looking for her shoes, and the resemblance to the first time she did this, makes him cringe involuntarily.

"Kono, what are you doing?" he sighs with irritation, rising from his position on the bed.

"Shit!" he hears her say from beneath the bed, banging her head on the bed's frame. She stands up with the missing shoe in her hand, looking embarrassingly at him. "I really didn't want to wake you up..." she says sheepishly.

"Oh really?" he says, getting up slowly from the bed, and looking for his pants on the floor "because I was beginning to think that maybe you're just not too comfortable with that whole morning after thing." He stands up naked in front of her, all bruised up and agonizingly puts on his clothes. "At least today, you are not shouting crazily, or physically assaulting me..."

"You're so banged up... it's not much fun anymore..." she says, trying to make a joke of it.

"No, it's not" he says seriously.

She opens her mouth, wanting to say something and he thinks he sees tears in the corner of her eyes, but when he makes a movement towards her, she is backing up, shaking her head saying "No Steve. Please. Just let me go."

He remains there, looking after her when she disappears down the stairs. When he hears her car driving away, he sees her necklace on the bed.

()()()

She is quite aware that she has a lot of cousins, but it's still a bit disconcerting when she faces all 56 of them along with their spouses, their children and more often than expected, their pets, on Chin ho Kelly's lawn. She spots Malia coming out of the house, looking at the big commotion in front of her, realizing for the first time the real scale of the task she took upon herself. It's true, the woman's a capable physician, one of the leading oncologists on the island, making life and death decisions on a daily basis, but still, facing the Kalakaua - Kelly tribe heads on, that's a whole different ball game.

"Kono!" Malia calls, relieved to see the young woman, "thank god, you're here".

"Hi, Malia" she puts on her happy face, hoping her facial muscles will recognize the postures. It's actually been a while. "It all looks great." she hands her the big cake she brought. She bought it this morning, and put it in one of her dishes, which she hopes is an actual cake plate. She can never make the difference.

"There's not enough food" Malia whispers alarmingly, holding Kono in a tight embrace.

"Of course there's enough food" Kono gestures towards the big picnic table with mountains and mountains of food on it.

"Apparently, there isn't, because your mother just went inside to prepare some more" Malia says devastated, and Kono thinks she sees tears in her beautiful kind eyes.

"Don't tell me" Kono says exasperatingly "you told her not to bring anything. Tols her that you have everything under control, and she should just come and enjoy the party, like everybody else."

"Well... she is our guest..." Malia says hesitatingly.

"A rookie's mistake" Kono says shaking her head "you don't say 'don't bother' to Mrs. Kalakaua."

"But I really didn't want her to bother..." Malia says miserably.

"Look, Malia. Chin has six semi-lunatic aunts. You really want to avoid making mistakes with any of them."

''Oh dear" Malia's face are dropping again.

"Don't worry, my mom is probably the worst of them, and I'll teach you all the family secrets for safe conduct with the aunts. I'm quite certain we have a manual somewhere. My cousin Lilly probably has it. Now come. Let's fix all this mess..."

"How can we fix it? She's making more food in the kitchen as we speak"

"We don't need food" Kono says seriously "we need tequila".

It takes ten more minutes, and three shots each, for things to start to look a little bit better. Until Kono raises her head, looks at the great big lawn, and sees Steve standing there, fixing his gaze at her direction. Yeah. That's fucking great. They will probably need some more shots after all.

()()()

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I didn't. There are no ghosts."

"Than what's wrong?"

"I've made a huge mistake..."

"Why? what happened?"

"It's all your fault actually" Kono says bitterly "_you_ got me thinking about it in the first place."

She tells Malia everything. About that first reckless night, when she went to see him. She explains the amount of passion and the urgency in their hook up, and describes that embarrassing morning, when she left without an explanation, and the way they can't even be together in the same room, anymore.

"You've made a terrible mistake" Malia says, after listening quietly.

"I _know_. I should never have slept with him..."

"No silly" Malia rolls her eyes at her "you shouldn't have left."

"What?!"

"It's quite obvious you two are in love with each other" she continues seriously "I mean, look how miserable you both are. I told you to talk to him about how you feel, not just treat him like an occasional one night stand."

"Two" Kono huffs shamefully.

"Excuse me?"

"Not a one night stand... technically, there were two."

"And did you _technically_ left after the second night as well?"

"hhhmmmm..."

"It's not only semi-lunatics _aunts_ Chin has, is it?!" apparently not.

()()()

The universe is a wonderful magical place. And one of the most magical things in it is Karma. So when she sees her mother walking purposefully towards Steve, she thinks, in a way, she probably expected it. Because the only thing missing in her already fucked up life, the last fucking nail in the coffin of her sanity, is just this little Karmic part of their meeting. She decides to just sit there on the lanai, surrounded by her friends and family, just watching the unholly union forming in front of her. Honestly, there isn't enough tequila in the world...

()()()

The tall slender Hawaiian woman who walks determinedly towards him looks familiar, but he only recognizes her when she stands before him, hand on her hip, smiling compellingly and showing two distinct dimples. It makes him straighten immediately in high alert.

"Commander McGarrett?" she states more than asks, measuring him from head to toe.

"Mrs. Kalakaua, I presume?" he says kindly, extending his hand towards her, impressed when she shakes it, quite vigorously.

"You are wounded" she observes, indicating towards his still bandaged left arm and the abrasions on his face and neck. He tries to suppress the realization that considerable number of those abrasions are the result of a lust induced carelessness and were created by Mrs. Kalakaua's daughter in two separate occasions, as well as the fact that there are other, deeper wounds caused by her daughter, which he can only hope are not so that easy to spot.

"I'm fine" he says reassuringly. "Just a part of the job."

"I sincerely hope not" Mrs. Kalakaua says threateningly. "Let me assure you, that I will not tolerate any of these nonsense in regard to my daughter."

"Of course not" he says quickly "I'm making sure she's safe" a short flashback of Kono climbing the signs post above that busy highway comes to his mind, but he tries to shake it away.

"You actually think you can tell her what to do?" Mrs Kalakaua looks at him doubtfully.

"I am very persuasive, when I want to be" he smiles at her, but he sees, alarmingly, her expression transforms before his eyes.

"Just don't get any ideas" she tells him, stepping a bit closer to him. "She is a very beautiful girl. Very capable and sweet as honey." He definitely used to think so, yes. "Make sure to keep your hands away from her" honestly, like he would ever touch her again. Only he knows, unfortunately, he most definitely will, given the chance. He's a suicidal masochist, apparently.

"I promise you to act as professional as possible" he says, aware of the fact that it might not be as possible as she might imagine "I know where things stand" this is probably the biggest lie he had ever told in his entire life, and that includes withholding information from an interrogator in North Korea.

It seems to do the trick though, because Mrs. Kalakua puts her arm around him, and leads him to the table with all the food.

"You really need to eat something, commander" she tells him "you look awful, like you've been fighting a war or something." She has no idea.

()()()

The luau was less of a disaster than he had expected. He wasn't supposed to be there actually. He told Chin he had to be home because his sister was coming, which was true, and he really stood tall to all of Chin's pleadings and nagging. But when his sister came, as scheduled, and they were on their way to the beach, Malia called to ask him again, and he made the crucial mistake of putting her on speaker. After two minutes of conversation with the gentle woman, which reminded him to make sure to kill Chin for using her to coerce him in such a transparent sneaky way, Mary Ann was hooked. she turned the car around, and drove them to the Kelly's residence, ignoring his refusals, threats and finally he heart breaking pleading. _His_ heart anyway, Mary Ann seemed fine with it.

Luckily, it really turned out OK, despite that chilling conversation he had with her mother. He means, it was practically a fucking success, as he didn't even have to talk to her once the entire time. In regard to this empty disappointment he felt, after being in the her vicinity, and not talking to her, well... he secretley hopes it's related to that blow in the head he suffered two days ago.

()()()

They get back to his house, and settle in for the night.

"You're sleeping in my bed" he tells Mary Ann, when he goes to the spare room where he was spending the last two nights, trying to get her some linen from the closet, using only one arm.

"What? why?" she says looking at him suspiciously from the door.

"Because I want you to be comfortable" he says innocently.

He's aware that it's really fucked up crazy. That he can't even use his own bed anymore. Or his couch. And that it's a bloody miracle they didn't use other places in the god damn house, because he shamefully admits he has a weird feeling every time he looks at that landing on the staircase, where she pushed him back against the wall, and attacked his neck. He has no doubt he simply can't allow her into his house again, or he might find himself sleeping in a tent in the back yard.

"Steve" he hears Mary Ann calling from his bedroom on the other side of the hall "why is there a diamond necklace on your bed?"


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**: My thanks to everyone who favored this fic, who follows, and especially to the ones who took the time to leave me some kind words and ideas. I have to admit that this fic is a little bit disjointed in my opinion. I am very busy this days, and maybe it was a mistake to try and maintain the high frequency of updates. Anyway, I hope that you still find it entertaining. I am, as always opened for suggestions and ideas.

* * *

"Who is she?" she drops on the bed beside him.

"No one" he says cringing from the pain induced by the movement of the bed. "Will you get off my bed please?"

"Technically, this is _my_ bed" she answers, as she props herself on her elbows smiling challengingly at him. "Who is she?"

"Mary Ann, would you please leave me alone? I'm hurt, I'm in pain, I need to sleep..."

"No problem" she makes herself comfortable next to him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to sleep, good night"

"With me?"

"As I was saying, this is in fact, my bed. So apparently, _you_ are sleeping with me..."

"I gave you my own bed in the master bedroom, for god's sake" Steve whines "what else do you want from me?"

"I'm not sleeping on it! It's quite obvious you just fucked someone there. It's disgusting"

"I gave you clean linen..." he mumbles.

"It's still disgusting..."

"More than sleeping here with me?"

"You can sleep on the couch if it bothers you" she shrugs nonchalantly.

"I can't actually..." he grumbles.

"Why?" she looks suspiciously at him. "What happened to you? what the hell did she do?"

"It's nothing Mare, really" he sighs tiredly. He wonders if she realizes her enthusiastic demonstration of concern for his well being, actually causes him to be even more distressed.

"Who is she, Steve?" she asks again, holding his chin and forcing him to look at her.

"I really don't want to talk about it"

She keeps staring at him quietly, and he sees a strange tenderness in her eyes, which makes him think she might actually let it go. He is wrong, unfortunately, because it seems, she was only assessing the information, while she continues to interrogate him.

"Obviously, it's someone you care about" she says, after thinking about it "you wouldn't be such a wreck over a one night stand, would you?"

"You think?" he laughs humorlessly.

"I know you." She shrugs "you're not the type for one night stands. You're much too intense for that. You have too much guilt, and an overdeveloped sense of responsibility. I mean even when you had a one night stand with that, what's her face...?"

"Catherine?"

"Yeah, Catherine, it felt so wrong for you, that you actually continued to have repeated one night stands with her for six fucking years. You kept doing it, even when it was adamantly clear you had no business being with her." Her description is so accurate, it gives him the chills. "Wait! is it her?"

"What?" he looks insulted "of course not. We broke it up ages ago..."

"Good" she says, satisfied, but keeps staring at him."You didn't want to go to the luau, didn't you...?" she says thoughtfully after a while "was she there?!" that's actually makes her quiver with excitement. "Is it Malia? are you cheating on Chin?!"

"For crying out loud Mare" he exclaims, shocked by her proposition "how long have you known me? do you really think I would cheat on Chin?"

"Fine fine..." she says apologetically, obviously he wouldn't do such a thing.

"Please give it a rest, would you?" he elevates his head from the pillow and reaches for the alarm clock on the bedside table. It's quite a shame really, that he holds the clock in the air trying to adjust the alarm at that particular moment, because when Mary Ann sits bolt upright in the middle of the bed, and shouts "_It's Kono, you pig_!" it makes him drop it to the floor, and it smashes into million pieces. "That makes you a liar, brah" she accuses.

"Why?"

"Because you're sleeping with your young innocent rookie, and you two are most definitely cheating on Chin!"

()()()

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm coming with you."

"No you're not."

"Why not?"

"Because we are working, on a homicide, and you are not a cop." Steve explains patiently to his hardly impressed sister.

"I'm already here" she insists "I want to go with you. I honestly think it will be good for us to spend some time together."

"We spent more than enough time together, last night" he reminds her dryly "I'm still recuperating from it."

"What am I supposed to do then?" she asks exasperated.

"Look, Mare, I'm grateful to you for bringing me to work this morning, but Danny and I have to go now, and you can't come with us. Why don't you take the truck, go to the beach, enjoy yourself, and I'll call to tell you when to pick me up?"

"Or..." she says thoughtfully, sending him a mischievous smile "I could just stay here... With Kono."

Yeah right! "She's coming with us" he tells Danny as he pulls her forcefully towards the elevators. That whole blackmail thing she is doing right now? that will probably drive him off the cliff completely.

()()()

"So, where are we going?" Mary Ann asks enthusiastically from the back seat.

"_We_ are going to see the ME, and talk to him about a dead body" Steve says to the rear view mirror "_You_ are going to sit in the car"

"What do you mean ME?" she says curiously, ignoring his clearly unrealistic suggestion that she will stay out of the action "like, with dead people and stuff? sounds cool"

"Yes" Steve says, stressing the word "and it's not cool, it's serious. And you're not coming in"

"You are no fun, Steve, do you know that? how can you stand him?" she asks Danny, who seems to be enjoining himself quite a bit.

"It's a problem" Danny says nodding vigorously "he doesn't even let me crack jokes about the vics during an active investigation"

"You mean you actually try to make jokes with him?" Mary Ann looks mortified "he's my brother and all, and I kind of like him, but I have to say, he has no sense of humor to save his life..."

"It is so good to hear you say that" Danny says animatingly "I was starting to think it was just me..."

"You do realize I'm sitting next to you when you're talking about me in the third person, right? You both know, I have a very good sense of humor."

"That must be the funniest thing you said, since I met you" Danny says with a straight face.

"Maybe because when I met you, my life suddenly became a heart breaking tragedy. I had no inclination for jokes since then..."

"That was pretty good" Mary Ann smiles impressively from the back seat "maybe he _is_ improving..."

Maybe by the end of the ride, Max will have another body to examine. He looks quickly at the smile that is spreading on Danny's face, maybe two...

()()()

She has an attention span of a three year old. She always had. Except when she was an actual three year old, then she had the attention span of a Cocker Spaniel. So when they stand with Max around the examining table, looking at the body of a young woman, that was washed from the sea, and speak about the cause of death and the residual substances under her fingernails, and when Mary Ann loses interest soon after, and starts walking around the lab, he is hardly surprised to hear a big crashing noise from the other room. There's a weird combination of breaking wood and music, and they all know it's Max's piano that got the hit. When they run to the other room they see Mary Ann standing in the middle of the room, looking horrified at the broken musical instrument, holding what is left of the book shelf on the wall.

Max is not talking to him anymore. The rest of the report is given to Danny, with the McGarrett siblings standing outside. He is extremely proud of himself for not killing her then and there. Very mature.

()()()

They go back to HQ in silence. Even Danny's joy from having Steve grovel in front of Max, was blown away by the cold fury spreading in the car. When they get to HQ, Steve gets out of the car as fast as his injuries allow him, and heads towards his office.

"Don't worry" Danny says to her "he'll get over it"

"I'm not worried" she says immediately. "I'm the least of his problems."

"Yeah. He's not himself lately" Danny says "Something is wrong with him. Did he say anything to you?"

They both look at Steve's retreating back "He's sad" she says eventually. "I tried to ask him a few times, but he's not the most talkative guy. I don't know for sure, but I have an idea..."

"Well?" Danny's senses are on high alert right now.

"I promised not to tell" Mary Ann says resolutely "I will not betray him."

"Of course not..." Danny says, admittedly disappointed.

"But... you need another woman's perspective, that's for sure" she makes her way towards the building.

"Which woman?" he shouts after her.

"The obvious one" she shouts back behind her back "and you didn't hear it from me..."

()()()

"Hi"

"Hi Mary" Kono smiles from her chair, to the young woman standing at the door to her office. "How are you?"

"Great, great..." she walks inside the office, snooping around the different files scattered around the room. How the hell could Steve fall for this messy girl, she has no idea. He's freaking out if she uses a coffee mug without a coaster, Kono will have him lose his sanity altogether. Only, when she looks at Kono's kind eyes and her dimples, she can see how he doesn't actually have a say here. Not really. "I like your necklace..." she says off handedly.

"Oh thanks" Kono sends her hand to her neck, but there's nothing there. Her diamond necklace, where the hell is the... oh crap! she looks horrified at her boss's sister.

"Busted!" Mary Ann smiles triumphantly. "Someone's being naughty..."

"Oh god!" Kono groans, banging her head on the desk "he told you..."

"Don't be ridiculous" Mary Ann sits on the chair in front of her, marvels at her success "of course he didn't tell me. He is physically incapable of telling anything of consequence to a fellow human being. I figured it out on my own."

"Oh yeah?" Kono's muffled voice is heard from behind her hands which cover her red face "how?"

"The two of you look like you were hit by a truck or something. You hardly talk, you keep sending guilty looks at one another, and you are both so sad, it makes me want to cry. I mean, I spent two days with him, and he got me so depressed I almost cut my own veins..."

"Really?" Kono looks at her with a concerned look.

"What happened?" Mary Ann asks seriously.

"It's all my fault" Kono sniffs, trying to hide her tears "I came on to him, and just left him there without explanation. He must hate me..."

"He's so in love with you, it's pathetic!" Mary Ann snorts dismissively. Kono only looks at her with a silent hope. "It's actually good that it's all your fault." Mary continues when she sees Kono's face falling again.

"Is it?" Kono asks hesitatingly.

"Yes. It means you'll have no problem solving it" she gets up and walks towards the door. "I'm staying with him for a few days, but tonight... I will probably go to sleep at my friend Lisa's. Just thought you should know..."

Mary Ann is a really sweet and gentle girl, Kono decides when she follows with her eyes after the young woman walking around the big room. She has a kind heart and a lot of love for her brother. Her musing is interrupted with the sudden appearance of a music clip, playing loudly on the big screen. Steve's furious shout is heard from the other room "For fuck sakes Mary Ann, I told you not to touch it."

()()()

"I'm off"

"Off where?"

"Lisa" she says as she's heading for the door with a big bag on her shoulder "see you."

"Wait. You're not taking the truck."

"Of course I am. How else would I get there?"

"What if I'd have a case and needed to go?"

"You can't drive anyway, someone will pick you up."

"Wait" Steve shouts as she opens the door, already half way out of the house "I need you to take me to HQ in the morning."

"Trust me, it will be fine" she tells him, reassuringly.

"Mare..." he shouts again, but she can't hear him anymore.

There's a knock on the door a few minutes later. He knew she'll be back.

"Did you forget something?" he says as he opens the door, only it's not Mary Ann who stands there. It's Kono. He looks at her dumbstruck, and doesn't know what to do.

"Can I come in?" she asks quietly after a few moments, when neither say a word.

"No" he says at last. Holding the door forcefully and blocking the entrance.

"No?" she looks surprised.

They stand there watching each other carefully, the door frame between them, and it's really not clear what's going on, until suddenly she starts to laugh. She stands there in front of him, practically exploding with laughter, tears coming out of her eyes, as she's holding her stomach.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asks looking at her like she's lost her mind, trying to hide the smile that is forming on his lips as well "what the hell is so funny?"

"I'm sorry" she groans, trying to speak behind her giggling "I don't mean to laugh. But I spent 45 minutes in front of the mirror, rehearsing all the things I wanted to tell you, and all the arguments I had to offer, but it was all depending on you, letting me in" she wipes the tears away, trying to regain her composure with partial success, "I have no idea what to do now..." she smiles foolishly at him.

"Give me your best line" he tells her, coughing a bit to hide his own amusement "maybe I'll let you in after all."

"Ok" she looks at him thoughtfully. "I'm sorry!" she says, but he doesn't look impressed. "I never meant to hurt you. You are so very dear to me, and I can't even stop thinking about you. When I'm thinking about the way I mistreated you, I feel so ashamed. I'm sincerely sorry. I hope you can forgive me."

He looks at her thoughtfully, and she searches for a sign on his face that he's actually listening to her sincere apology, but finds nothing. He can't think straight. Can't think at all. He lost her somewhere after the first 'I'm sorry'.

"That wasn't so bad" he says at last "I guess you can come in, now" he moves to the side to let her in, and she stands there for a moment examining her surroundings. She decides they should focus on the basics and act like civilized people, so she turns around to ask him how's his arm. She really has a hard time to formulate a proper question, because she happens to look into his eyes and sees an unexpected hungry and desperate desire there. His mouth opens instinctively, and she really hopes his arm is better, when she lashes onto him, hanging on his neck and kissing him violently. They crash into the wall, knocking off some pictures again "I'll buy you new ones" she whispers, and he nods vigorously holding her against him. She pulls him towards the stairs and they lose their balance, and fall there, managing to get rid of most of their clothes in the process. They stumble upstairs, and she leads him towards his bedroom.

"Not there" he mumbles, "I gave my room to Mary ".

"Why?" she looks at him for a minute. Does she really want to talk about it right now? he captures her and slides his hand on her breast, and drags her towards the guest room.

"Wait" he tells her when she pushes him on the bed, standing half crazed and half naked above him. Is he fucking out of his mind?

"what?"

"Not on this bed..." he says breathlessly.

"Will you make up your mind already?" she says, shedding the rest of her clothes, standing in front of him naked, and ready, and he almost loses his grip on reality.

"Fine" he says finally, holding her hand and forcing her on top of him "forget about it, this bed is fine. I'll sleep with Danny if I have to" he shouldn't really mention the 'other woman' in his life right now, if you ask her, only nobody doesn't, he flips her on the bed, skimming his hand on her thigh slowly while he looks lovingly into her eyes. When his hand moves between her legs, he can mention who ever the fuck he wants, she honestly doesn't care.

()()()

She lies on her back on the guestroom bed, while he caresses her sender body with his big hand. he kisses her breast, and her chest slowly, tasting the salty sweat that accumulated there, and moans quietly into her skin. She ruffles his hair, lovingly, smiling at him before she closes her eyes. She hears him climbing out of the bed and walking about in the room. She's so exhausted she doesn't even bother to open her eyes. Then he lies back against her body, she feels him leaning above her.

"Give me your left hand, sweetheart" he whispers to her, and she does. Allows him to hold it against his lips, and lift it above her head. She has no idea how he still has the energy to continue at this point, but it feels nice, her hand stretched upwards against the bed's railing, and his hand moves gently on top of it. Until she hears the distinct click of the handcuffs, and opens her eyes in shock.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm handcuffing you to the bed" he kisses her nose and smiles reassuringly.

"What the hell?"

"It's nothing kinky, trust me. I just want to make sure you'll be here in the morning."

She looks at him annoyed, ready to tell him exactly what she thinks of his crazy idea. But he looks so sweet and happy and sexy as hell, and his lips are closing on her breast again, so she decides to let it slide, for a while. Honestly, with her record, she can't really blame him...


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** My thanks to all of you who favored, followed and read this story. My special thanks for the ones who took the time to leave me their reviews, they make me happy and allow me to understand things about what I write, hopefully make it better by that.

A few words on Marry Ann - I found it intriguing, that Steve the uptight navy SEAL with his high intensity and seriousness, has a somewhat clueless sister. The type that can't hold a job, frequently makes a mess and gets into troubles. In the show, it is quite obvious he loves her. He is sweetly on edge when he waits for her in the airport and he actually tells her he loves her after she is abducted. He is also impressed with her unexpected resourcefulness and wisdom. And Kono seems to get along with her as well, which makes me very happy indeed. Anyway, I'm a big fan of siblings rivalry/ love, and she is the only family he has, so I chose to focus a little on her. My version of Mary Ann is based (loosely) on my own awesome sister, this is why I write her with so much love. I am so happy to see that so many of you found her so compelling.

Alas, I do feel her presence is taking some of the Danny-Steve dynamics, so she will be going (temporarily) back to LA and we will have more of Danny now. Now that she has helped Steve to come to terms with his feelings (I can't really picture Steve admitting to Danny he is sad and depressed...), We'll leave it to Danny to take care of his partner's love life.

On a side note: The handcuffs thing. Yeah... I can totally see the potential. Assessing the reviews, they will have to be incorporated again...

Tell me what you think.

* * *

She wakes up suddenly, not realizing where she is at first. She looks around her, at the strange room, squinting at the sunlight coming from the window. When she tries to move her left hand, she remembers where she is. She rolls on her back, and sees him lying there, his naked body sprawled exhaustingly next to her. He has a serious, concentrated expression on his face, and he is so beautiful, she simply has to touch him. She moves her free hand and brushes her thumb gently on his cheek. It all she has to do to wake him up. Oops.

"I'm sorry" she whispers when he open his eyes in alarm "I didn't mean to wake you."

"Planning your escape route?" he smiles sleepily when she props herself up to a semi-sitting position.

"I'm trying awfully hard not to" she grumbles, and his expression turns serious, immediately.

"Kono, do you want to talk ab...?" she actually doesn't, as it happens, and she really tries not to hurt him anymore, so she is urgently trying to think about something else to say. when she accidently take a look at his cell phone that lays on the bedside table, and realizes what time it is.

"Jeez, Steve. It's 8:00 o'clock! we're late!"

"Shit" how could it happen? he's never late. He can picture Danny's rant with the both of them stepping in HQ together, an hour late. It will be like coming in holding a banner saying "_we are fucking each other, please come and talk to us and tell us what you think_" the amount of grief Danny will inflict on him... he will have to have him reassigned. At best...

"How can we be late?" he asks angrily. Even with his, let's say... _preoccupation_ with Kono last night, he always have back up. Well, obviously it's because he is no longer the owner of an alarm clock. And it's indirectly Kono's fault too. In her last three visits to his home, she broke more things in there than Nick Taylor did. And Nick was practically shooting into the god damn house. He doesn't mind though. As long as she keeps his heart intact, she can wreck the place completely.

He pushes off the bed and starts looking for his clothes.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" she says annoyingly from the bed. Obviously, he does, but he is easily reminded, when he lifts his head and sees her lying naked on his bed, still handcuffed to the railing. She dangles her shackle, indicating for him to release her. Only he looks at her hesitatingly, moving his eyes slowly over her exposed body, and swallows hard.

"You're joking!" she gasps when she sees his hungry gaze.

He drops the tee shirt he is holding on the floor, still staring.

"No, Steve! stay away from me!" he doesn't even listen, licking his lips absentmindedly.

"We have to go to work..." she tries to protest when he approaches the bed slowly "we'll be so late..."

He lies on top of her, making her feel his heavy body all over her and pining her free hand, above her head. When he is effectively restraining both her arms, his head drops to her neck, and his warm mouth starts moving downwards towards her breasts. She moves her leg in an automatic response, to get him closer to her, and she feels the consuming need starting to build inside her when she has his warm body between her legs.

"You'll be the one to provide explanations to Danny" she groans when he starts moving. They should really stop mentioning his partner's name during sex. He's only saying.

()()()

They are almost two hours late when they get out of the house. She drives them in her car, all clean and ready, well... as ready as they can be, to the third degree they undoubtedly will be getting from Danny. She still has some markings on her left wrist from the handcuffs, and she hopes nobody will see. Only, when she looks at Steve, his eyes are constantly wondering towards her wrist, and he has a satisfied smile on his face every time they do. The arrogant bastard.

A mile from HQ she stops the car and looks expectedly at him.

"You're walking from here" she says at last, as he seems to be missing a crucial part of their non verbal communication.

"Excuse me?" he looks insulted.

"We are two hours late. We can't come together to HQ, while both Danny and Chin are there. Especially when you are the most unreliable undercover operative I have ever seen, there's simply no way you'll be able to erase this smug expression off your face."

She has a valid point, and this is why she manages to persuade him to get off the car in just about less than seven minutes. It involves her promising to back him up with Danny, to do the first shitty assignment he throws on her _without_ complaining, and to let him use the handcuffs again. All and all, not entirely an unsatisfying result.

()()()

When he gets to HQ, he sees all three of them gathered around the smart table evaluating the case.

"You're late!" Danny spits at him, indicating the clock.

"A leader is never late" Steve clarifies in the most authoritative voice he can master "a leader is _delayed_. Tell me what you've got"

"_She_ was late, too" Danny ignores him, pointing his head towards Kono, and scanning the both of them suspiciously.

"I'm sure she has a very good explanation" Steve shrugs "maybe she was tied up..."

The shriek of mortification that escapes Kono's mouth earns her three puzzling looks from her teammates. Really! the nerves of this guy, how did she ever think about having sex with him in the first place? When she catches his lips curling into a brief smile, it comes back to her.

()()()

The autopsy didn't produce anything new, and the workplace and family are dead ends. The only information they can get is from the murder scene and a testimony from the victim's neighbor. Apparently she had registered to a dating website a few months ago, and dated a guy she met on line in the last two months. The neighbor has never met him, but could give a relatively good description based on her conversation with the victim. The description seems quite similar to the description of a man, seen by an eye witness close to the murder scene.

"If he'd targeted her, he might be targeting other women on the website" Steve says as they go over the two descriptions.

"We can pull all the men who approached her on the website" Chin says already opening the computerized data base "and cross them with the description".

"He dated her for two months before he killed her" Kono reminds them "maybe he is already in touch with another woman."

"Maybe he is already in touch with several" Danny adds.

"Go over the list" Steve says to Chin "find him."

"Description is not enough" Kono says looking at the dating service website "we need more information about her. books she likes, music, movies. Her hobbies, her pets... all the things that people talk about in this kind of encounters. It will give us an idea of the men she would look for, and it will give us an idea of the women he wants".

There's a blank expression on Steve's face, and it looks like he has no idea what they are talking about.

"You do know what a dating service is, right?" Danny asks looking at him skeptically "or a date, for that matter..."

"I have a rough idea, yes..." Steve answers scratching the back of his neck. "Did you ever use such a website?" he looks at Kono with a strange expression "to get dates, I mean..."

"Nah, Brah" she shrugs nonchalantly "I've got mom for this. She plans to have me date all the men on the island between age twenty and thirty five, by the end of the year." he doesn't seem to care much for this plan, by the looks of him.

()()()

She goes with Danny to search the victim's apartment again and have some idea about her interests and her personality. Danny is such a nosy person, he actually perfect for this job. It's quite unexpected to see that he can recognize some of the tens of self help books she has on the shelf. To have him recommend a few of them to her, is not only unexpected, it's practically alarming. Sometimes she feels like Danny could be the perfect best girl friend for someone. When he dials Steve's number to ask him what he wants to eat for lunch, she realizes who this someone is.

()()()

"So...?" she asks as she enters the house, and finds him in the kitchen.

"Hungry? I'm making dinner."

"Tell me what happened!" she says impatiently throwing her bag on the floor, and taking a sip from his already opened bottle of beer.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he's not even turning towards her, carefully putting the stakes on the pan.

"Steve, I know she came to see you last night. Tell me what happened!"

"She came, we talked, we went to sleep. It's fine" he says levelly.

"That's it?" Mary Ann moves towards him and turns him around so she can see his face "the love of your life comes to talk to you, apologizes, and stays the night, and you're not gonna tell me anything? No way in hell. It is you're brotherly obligation to tell me what happened. And please try to be specific. "

"You want a description of the whole night?" he looks at her disbelievingly "you want me to recite all the things that were said, describe the positions?"

"So..." she smiles triumphantly "there were some positions..."

He only groans in response, but he is less annoyed than he should be. She can tell.

"Good" she says, picking her bag from the floor beside her. "I guess I can go back to LA now, without any concerns."

"You're leaving?" he turns surprised, with a weird mix of excitement and regret on his face.

"Yup. Tomorrow morning."

They look at each other for a few seconds, not saying anything.

"Go wash your hands, and we'll sit down for dinner" he says at last, turning back to the kitchen counter.

They eat dinner in a comfortable silence, and she even offers to clean up afterwards. He doesn't really trust her to be in charge of such delicate and crucial activities, but he's really tired, so he lets her dry the dishes under close supervision, while he does everything else. She tells him about Lisa and about a cute guy she met in a bar in Waikiki, and he makes a mental note to look him up on the HPD files and maybe drive by his house, just in case. When they finish, they make arrangements for the next day, and check the flights' schedule. When she climbs the stairs before him, to go to her room, he suddenly hugs her from behind, holding her forcefully against him, pressing his lips to her temple.

"I love you too, Steve" she says when he lets her go, eventually "and I love her, as well..."

()()()

"You're being ridiculous."

"I'm not. I'm telling you, there's no way I'm wrong about this."

"Look brah, I know that you consider yourself to be the number one expert on everything that is 'Steve McGarrett', but there's no way."

"Why not?"

"Because... because, he will never do such a thing."

"You mean, he will never do such a _what_ thing?"

"Hmmm..."

"You meant to say he will never do such a reckless, dangerous, stupid, conventions deifying, rules breaking, crazy thing?"

"Yeah... I guess..." Chin says with some trepidation.

"Now who's being ridiculous?"

"I can see your point..."

"I'm telling you. I'm right about this" Danny's hands are moving violently with his growing excitement.

"I really hope that you're not."

"only one way to find out..."

()()()

One day Danny's curiosity, and by the word curiosity Steve actually means, his irrational tendency to pock his nose into someone else's, (namely Steve's) business, will get him killed. He can also tell in what way. He's thinking about taping his fucking big and overworked mouth and throwing him to the sea. Preferably where there are sharks. Hungry sharks. Because apparently, Danny got into his head that his boss and partner, with whom he is spending almost thirteen hours a day, every day, is sleeping with their lovely rookie. And instead of just keeping this crazy alas, not entirely unfounded idea to himself, he decided to share his suspicion with Chin. And this is why he is currently standing in the middle of HQ, after being ambushed by the both of them, trying to explain to them, rationally, that he's absolutely innocent here. It's not easy when he still has flashbacks of her naked body handcuffed to his bed, but hey! he's a SEAL. He constantly manages to do very difficult stuff.

"What?!"

"You've heard me."

"You're delirious."

"So you're not?"

"Where the hell did you get this fucking idea?"

"Answer the question, Steve" Danny is not impressed by his boss' shock.

"This is such a crazy notion, I refuse to even dignify it with an answer."

"I will have to insist" Danny's senses are on high alert here, because, call him crazy, but they've been interrogating Steve for a while now, and he still hasn't deny the accusation.

"I'm her boss" Steve looks at the both of them with alarm.

"We remember" Danny answers reassuringly "we were wondering if_ you_ remember that"

"This is highly inappropriate..." Steve starts making his way back to his office "let's pretend you didn't ask me this stupid question, and forget all about it".

"Wait, Steve" Chin is saying with his typical leveled tone "you are both adults. We just think we should know, as your teammates, so we'll have no secrets."

"Really?" Steve is turning back towards the older officer "you have no problem with this?"

"I didn't say I had no problem" Chin says truthfully "I only said, if you are sleeping with her, I want to know about it, so I can... you know... kill you, obviously".

"Thought so..." Steve says dryly and continues towards his office.

"Steven, I know that you are" Danny calls after him.

"You two are sissies" he shouts back "picking on me out of the blue like that, let's see you two brave souls asking Kono about this. She will have your asses."

They look at each other sheepishly, because they know he's right. They really wished they could get it out of Steve. Kono could be much scarier than him. If she wants to.

()()()

"Nothing in the HPD files" she says as she steps into HQ, after the awful assignment he threw on her. He practically had her scanning hundreds of ancient HPD files to find clues to a cold case murder from fifteen years ago, that Max said had some kind of resemblance to another case they were looking into a few weeks ago. She really thought that after proving herself so well in past occurrences, and no, she doesn't necessarily include her performances in his bed, she will not be forced to lead those wild goose chases anymore. Unfortunately, she promised him not to complain.

She sits in the big chair in Chin's office while they are both looking at her curiously. Steve is at his office, talking on the phone with his back towards them.

"What?" she asks losing her patience when they both say nothing. "Is there something on my face?" she stands up to take a glance at the mirror.

"You ask" Chin whispers to Danny.

"She's _your_ cousin" Danny says quickly.

"It was your stupid idea" Chin insists.

"What's wrong with you two?" she asks in confusion looking at the both of them, bickering like children.

"We have a question" Danny says, drying his palms nervously on his trousers "it's really stupid actually..." he says it somewhat shakily, and Chin rolls his eyes at him.

"If it's that stupid, maybe you shouldn't ask me" Kono says slowly "when people do stupid things, people get hurt..." she adds, crossing her arms.

"Are you sleeping with Steve by any chance?"

OK. Apparently asking her was quite stupid. Asking her while there were take out leftovers mainly of pasta with a considerable amount of sauce, was sheer idiocy. He needs to change now.

The sound of the food plates crashing to the floor, brings Steve running from his office.

"Well" he says shaking his head looking at the big mess on the floor and on Danny's trousers "can't say I didn't warn you. Can we let it go now?"

Danny's expression is quite clear about that. Not in a million years.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Thank you all for reading, favoring and following this fic. I appreciate especially the people who took the time to leave a review. It always makes me happy and helps with the writing and muse.

As always, please let me know what you think, and feel free to leave ideas.

* * *

They manage to identify three potential candidates on the website. Chin and Kono methodically go through all the profiles, crossing them with the description they have of the murderer, and with the specific profile Kono and Danny created of the victim. Their high concentration as they sit together in front of the computer analyzing the data, is impressive, and they work together closely like a well oiled machine, and this is why he doesn't have the opportunity to talk to her. Danny is watching him closely all day, and monitors each movement, and each glance he sends towards the young woman, so maybe it is actually better this way.

When finally, the cousins raise their heads from the smart table, and declare success, he breathe a sigh of relief.

"We've created a new account for Kono" Chin opens the appropriate webpage "and we updated all the relevant information. The three we are looking for are JohnnyD, Gerry302 and CJ. They are already quite active, with a lot of contacts. Hopefully they will be tempted by Kono's profile."

"Of course they will" Steve says it with an air of confidence, as he scans the pictures of the suspects off handedly. He misses the amused expressions on his teammates' faces at his words. "So..." he raises his head, a little surprised to see all of them looking at him like that, "You think we're ready?"

"Sure" Chin says "let's ask them out for a date."

()()()

He waits in his office patiently until everyone leaves, so he can finally talk to her. They didn't have a chance to speak to one another since she visited him, two nights ago. During work hours, he spends most of the time avoiding Danny's scrutinizing looks and forcing himself not to stare at her. It's not that he's offended by the fact that she seems to be unbothered with their new undetermined situation, or that he struggles to keep himself from picturing her naked body every time he hears her voice. It's also not because he really hates everything about their next mission when she'll have to date a potential killer. Really, it's not. OK, fine, it actually is all these things, obviously, if he's being completely honest here, but it's mainly the simple fact that he has no idea what the next stage is in their... well... for the lack of a better word... relationship. He really doesn't have a fucking clue. So you see? he really has to talk to her, because hopefully, she'll be able to think of something.

()()()

"Hi."

"Hey" she smiles from behind her desk when she sees him standing at her office door.

They remain there smiling at each other silently, for a few seconds. He realizes that he should probably ask her out for dinner, or maybe to come eat at his place, and he is quite proud of himself, because it sounds suspiciously like a proper date, the kind Danny keeps telling him about. However, when he opens his mouth to actually ask her, he hears Danny's suspecting voice behind him.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"Of course not" she smiles brightly, when she sees Steve's jaw clenching and notices that specific look he has in his eyes when he's going to hit someone.

"What were you talking about?" Danny asks, standing next to Steve, curiously assessing his agitated state of mind.

"The boss was about to ask us to go have drinks together" she says with an straight face. "I was just about to call you and Chin."

"Are you buying?" he looks at Steve questioningly.

"Sure" he says, trying to swallow the bitter taste of disappointment, and to adjust to the fact that he'll have to wait for a few more hours until he has her all for himself.

"Do you have your wallet with you?"

"Of course I do" he looks offended by the notion.

"It's a fucking miracle then" Danny smiles, clapping his hands together "I'll get Chin, we'll meet you outside."

"Hmm, Kono...?" Steve says after Danny goes back to his office.

"Of course you don't have it" she snorts, and shakes her head "fine, I'll land you some..." he would have really liked to thank her for her kindness. Really. Only, when she glides past him at the doorway, brushing against the front of his cargo pants with her hand, he forgets what he was about to say.

()()()

They all sit at one of the high tables in the bar, drinking and talking about their day. It's all nice and easy, and it looks like even Danny lowered his guards, when he lets them sit next to one another, without any arguments. Secretly, Steve suspects that he does so, only so he can have a good angle from which to watch the two of them together, and he tries to play along with it, and not to touch her too much, or look at her too much, or sniffing her hair, every time she laughs and shakes it around him. When she sees one of her friends from the academy and goes to say hello, he actually feels more relaxed, realizing how much energy he is investing just by sitting there next to her, trying not ot touch her. Chin is showing Danny how to operate one of the applications on his cell phone, because, obviously Chin is a very courageous man that will never admit defeat. When he sees neither of them pays him any attention, he takes the opportunity to go to the bathroom.

()()()

He finds the bathroom in the far corner of the bar, and opens the door to one of the stalls. He is just about to close it behind him when he is suddenly pushed inside and finds himself crashed into the wall, hearing the door being locked behind him. He turns quickly, on high alert, ready to fight the intruder, only to find himself nose to nose with her smiling face. she puts her finger on his lips, indicating for him to stay quiet, there's some people outside and he can hear them talking and laughing. She reaches with her hand to the front of his cargo pants, caressing him from over the fabric, and he practically stops breathing. She kisses him hurriedly and starts wrestling with his pants, and he joins in quickly helping her with both their buttons and zippers and they make a little mess of it, in the rushed way they try to remove the few barriers between their bodies. She starts to laugh at this, so he kisses her right away, to keep them from being heard, at least that what he tells himself, when his tongue dances freely around her mouth. There's not a lot of room in the small chamber, and they have to remain standing, so he lifts her, and helps her wrap her legs around his waist, supporting her with one arm, as the other one goes to her belly, moving under her top. He holds her against him forcefully, as they move together, pushing against the wall. The only sound heard, is the sound of their ragged breathing and her quiet moans. She tries to stifle the sound by biting his shoulder, and he really hopes she does it in the unexposed part of his skin. When he makes his last move, still shaking with the thrill of it all, she reaches to his face, and gently wipes the film of sweat off his forehead. She kisses him sweetly, and delicately with a long burning kiss, before she drops her legs back to the ground and fixes her pants back. He still stands there, hyperventilating and amazed, when she gets out of the stall, without saying a word.

"Another round?" Danny asks him when he gets back to their table, finding Kono sitting there sipping her beer casually.

"Yeah" he says, signaling to the waitress again, "maybe two..."

()()()

They sit in the coffee place, sipping their coffee quietly. Chin is outside in the van monitoring the bugs and cameras. They alternating, keeping watch over Kono and her newly arrived date on the other table.

"You got a visual?" Danny asks, fixing his eyes behind Steve's back, and they get a confirmation from Chin. This is the first guy.

He turns around in his seat, casually, and sees her sitting at the table with a young man wearing a suite. The guy is meticulously dressed, his hair slacked back with an enormous amount of hair gel, and his shoes are so clean, they actually sparkle. He talks animatedly at her, smiling and moving his hands in the air, while she sits opposite him, holding a cup of ice coffee, looking at him with a stunned expression.

"It must be hard for you" Danny says conversationally, looking at his partner's solemn expression, and Steve knows he is fishing.

"I have no idea what you are talking about" he says, trying to sound casual about it, but he can't help looking behind him again, at Kono, with an obvious uneasiness.

"You're worried about her"

"Of course I am" Steve says, annoyed "I would worry about you too, if you were sitting in her place"

"If you ever see me sitting in the middle of a date with another guy, I encourage you to worry about me" Danny notifies him "if it's any consolation, I think he seems nice... all clean and tidy... really, Steve he looks just like your type..."

"Nahhh" Steve says off handedly "definitely not my type. I like blonds, actually. Thought you've realized it by now..."

"That's hilarious" Danny says dryly.

The guy introduces himself as some big shot lawyer and makes a point of to talk a lot about his firm, and his money and his yacht and stuff like that, and it takes forever. Kono looks so bored, as if she's thinking about poking the fork into her brain or something... When Chin finishes to run all the data on the guy with the details he provides, and complete a full background check, it becomes quite apparent that he is not their murderer.

"OK" Chin says, "I guess we can pull her out".

"We're on it" Danny answers in the com. "Go on" He motions to Steve, but Steve fails to see what he wants from him.

"What do you want me to do?" he looks at him puzzled.

"Make the call."

"What call?" Steve looks at him in confusion.

"The 'I'm sorry, but there was a car accident, my house is on fire, my mom got sick, please come quick' call" Danny tells him "have you not been on a date in your life?"

"Well..."

"I'm sorry" Danny says bitterly "I forgot. You don't need dates to get laid, do you? women just throw themselves at you, and you just need to show them where the bed is... I actually hate you, Steve, it's amazing we're still friends"

"It amazes me every single day too" Steve reassures him.

"I can make the call, if you ladies are too busy arguing" Chin says in their ears "before my cousin loses her mind..."

()()()

"The next date is tomorrow" she tells him when he steps into HQ, after his meeting with the governor.

"Great" he huffs. And she can see the air getting out of him at once.

"Are you OK?" she asks, concerned when he just continues towards his office without stopping. He doesn't answer.

"Steve..." she knocks on his door quietly "is something wrong?"

He sits back in his chair, and looks at her thoughtfully, and she feels a little unsure of what is going on. She enters his office and closes the door behind her.

"What's wrong?" she asks again, sitting on the edge of the table facing him. "Are you upset with me?" she asks again when he doesn't answer, only looking at her silently.

"I don't know..." he says quietly. "How can I be upset with you, if I can't even be with you?"

"What are you talking about? I'm with you all day long"

"We never spend time alone together" he says closing his eyes briefly "and when we are, it's just for... you know..." she smiles at his unexpected embarrassment with raising the issue of their uncontrolled tendency to have sex every time they find themselves in each other's company "I mean, we didn't even talk about..."

"You want to talk?" she asks him with some bemusement "you've been spending too much time with Danny..."

He doesn't look too impressed with her poor attempt of a joke.

She reaches with her hand and touches his cheek gently, and feels him pressing against her hand causing her to feel that unique shiver she gets every time their bodies touch. When he opens his eyes to look at her, and moves his hand to her thigh, Danny steps into the room.

She is with her back to the door, obstructing their wondering hands from his line of vision. He doesn't see them this time, but it's close. When Kono makes an excuse and vanish from the room, he realizes they still haven't talk.

()()()

They sit in the coffee house again, monitoring another date. This second guy looks much more suspicious, flirting shamelessly with Kono, and she practically has to remove his intruding hand away from her thigh at least three times. When he actually moves her hair and sticks his nose into her neck, it's only Danny's quick response that manages to keep him in his place. Apparently he wants to take her dancing, and apparently against he's specific instructions, she is about to say yes.

When he sees her getting out of her chair and walking towards the restrooms, he hurries behind her to tell her exactly what he thinks about it.

"We're going dancing" she tells him, when he catches her at the hall, already furious.

"The hell you are."

"Steve, it's a good in for me, you've heard him, I think he's our guy"

"It's too risky, Kono. We didn't prepare the scene, we have no bugs or cameras there, it will be crowded..."

"It's the right move, and you know it" she tells him sharply, and they spend a few moments staring at each other stubbornly.

"No." he says finally "it's not safe."

"You let your emotions impair this operation" she tells him in anger, and sees him going ballistic before her eyes.

"It's my fucking operation" he hisses at her, practically livid "and don't you talk to me about fucking emotions..."

They go back, each to his own table, and he's still shaking from his unexpected outburst. When he hears her accepting the guy's invitation to go dancing, he isn't even surprised. They try to follow her into the dingy club he takes her to, and the dancing bodies around him, with the loud music suffocate him, and elevates his anxiety level to the roof. When the guy pulls her out of the club, through the back door, and Chin and Danny and him are running after them, finding him forcing himself on her, kissing her neck against the wall, he loses it completely.

()()()

"A broken arm."

"That's not too bad."

"That's not too good either."

"What's your point?"

"My point? you need me to explain my point? you can probably recite my point back to me during sleep."

"Fine, fine..."

"You have to be more careful."

"I _was_ careful, this is why I only broke his arm, and not his fucking neck..." Steve explains patiently.

"I don't know what they taught you in the SEALS, but this is not the proper way to interrogate a suspect. And may I remind you, that most of the time, the word suspect refers to an innocent person."

"He looked funny, didn't look at all innocent"

"He looked funny, because he stood there screaming with pain after you twisted his arm, kicked him in the stomach several times and shoved a gun to his head. You would look funny too in his place, trust me"

"I got guns pointed to my head in the past, and broke my arm, and let me assure you, I did not look funny."

"No... I bet you didn't... I bet you fixated the fracture on your own, and the gun was no issue because bullets just bounces back off your body. After all you are a bad ass ninja superSEAL"

"What's your point, Daniel?"

"My point? I have no point, only that I suggest you stay away from the interrogation room, and get your shit together."

"What shit?"

"Steve, you are pathetic. Do you honestly think I can't see what's going on?"

"Fine, I know I was a little upset lately..." Steve admits reluctantly.

"Upset? are you kidding me? I saw people throwing themselves off bridges who were more cheerful than you... what happened did they take the HK47 off the market? no more reruns of Rambo on cables? Someone hurt your feelings and thought you were from the army?"

"I thought you said I had no feelings..."

"True, you don't. I hate to risk my life like this but... do you want to talk about it?"

There's a fraction of a second when Danny thinks he sees a small hesitation in his partner's eyes, before the last one shakes his head decisively.

"Is it about Kono?" Danny asks quietly.

"I've already told you, Danny. There's nothing going on between me and Kono."

The thing is, he's not even lying, it became the truth since their last toxic argument in the middle of the mission. He'd decided he can't let their involvement compromise missions anymore, especially after it made her risk her life like that, frightening him half to death in the process. So he made an executive decision to pull the plug on it altogether. Hey, it's not like he's hurting her or something, it was quite obvious she was only looking for... you know... something different than he was. They are both adults, they can totally contain this. The big painful hole that is burning in the middle of his chest? that's got nothing to do with this, maybe he's a little hungry. After all, he hasn't been eating so well lately.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Thank you all for your kind reviews and your keeping with this story. I appreciate everyone who favored, follows and read this story. My specific thanks for you who took the time to leave me some words and tell me what they think.

* * *

It's been a week since he'd called it off. A week since he knocked on her door, refused her invitation to come in, and broke her heart. A week since he stood there, with his arms crossed, and his guarded expression and explained that he can't let it go on like this. That he fears that their work is affected, that he sees no other way but to call it quits, in order to protect their team. Yeah, that's right, their precious team again.

It's the things he didn't say that made her crumble down on the ground the minute he drove off. The realization that the intoxicating and desperate tempest of emotions which surrounded their connection, was not enough. That the necessity to keep their lust filled hook ups secret, was taking its toll, and that he'd rather let her go, than to rock the boat of his otherwise, well controlled and stable life.

She spent the entire night crying her heart out, letting the tears wash the bitter taste of regret. When morning came, she stood up, strong, trying to ignor the rage she was feeling. Hot, burning, blinding rage.

()()()

They have another runner. Kill her now, she has no clue how come these stupid criminals always run. It is a god damn fucking _island,_ where do they think they are running to? she means, come on, they gonna hit water eventually, right? Steve and her are the ones giving chase, obviously, and this time they run along the coast line, chasing a small time thief named Colton, who has some information about a sting operation they are looking into. She swears, by the time they get him, he would _wish_ they arrest him, and they'd probably have to put him in a protective custody, because she has a few ideas of what she's gonna do to him once she'd caught his sorry ass. He is running among the pedestrians, and sea bathers, and she gets knocked down, _twice. Gets knocked up _by cyclists, runs into a shaved ice kiosk, and gets entangled in a dog's leash, almost losing her balance. She is so annoyed, she can almost start to see Danny's point when he talks about this tourists infested hell hole. Her mood improves a little bit when she sees from the corner of her eye how Steve tries to avoid a small group of toddlers, and jumps over their heads, only to be knocked down to the ground by their screaming mother. She knows her gut's reaction is childish and vindictive, but she can't really help it.

They catch him on the sand, eventually. His pace is slower there, and Steve jumps on top of him from the edge of the promenade. When Steve manages to get up and shake the sand off, she already has the guy cuffed and ready to go. They start to make their way back to the main road, where Danny and Chin are waiting. Those two are not even pretending to help with the foot chases anymore.

They walk in silence, each of them on each side of the prisoner, holding his arms.

She takes a chance and peeks at him, he looks awful, tired and grumpy, with an aggressive and agitated air about him, and he has an impressive cut above his eyebrow that bleeds into his eye.

"You're hurt" she says without even thinking, and a tone of concern is creeping into her voice. He's a cold hearted, arrogant bastard, but she used to think he was _her_ cold hearted, arrogant bastard. She still does, in a way.

Her gentle and protective tone seems to startle him at first, and he looks at her confused and even... grateful? but he quickly collects himself "I'm fine" he grumbles.

"Fine" see is she cares. Only she does. It looks like he needs stitches.

"Oh oh, troubles in paradise?" Colton asks laughing at their angry words and the almost tangible hostility in the air.

"Shut up" Steve orders.

"Easy brah. What's wrong? you don't get any? you should really give him some, babe" he indicates to Kono of Steve's severe expression "he's so uptight, it could be dangerous..."

"I said, shut up" Steve says again, and pushes him violently.

"Don't get it out on the prisoner" Kono tells him angerily. She really starts to like this guy.

"Yeah. Don't take it out on the prisoner" Colton agrees "listen to your girlfriend, here."

"She's not my girlfriend" Steve says sharply.

"Really?" Colton looks surprised. He looks at Kono, and scans her head to toe. "Why not? she's gorgeous." Yeah. She definitely likes this guy. She should put him in the most beautiful jail cell they have.

"Well, she isn't" Steve says pointedly "it really doesn't matter how gorgeous she is" why the hell is he having this conversation, anyway.

"It was his choice" Kono explains to her new friend.

"Oh really?" Steve stops in the middle of the promenade looking furiously at her "because I don't remember you giving me _any_ choice..."

"Like I was the one to call it off!" she stands in front of him, defiant and enraged. At least she got him talking again, she wasn't sure if he remembered how to do it.

"You had her, and you called it off? are you insane?" Colton looks at him with astonishment.

"One more word and I'll put a bullet in your brain" Steve pulls his gun and points it at Colton's head. "What did you expect me to do?" he looks tiredly at Kono "you didn't want to talk, you kept avoiding me. For god sake's Kono, I had to handcuff you to the bed to keep you from running away after we had sex... I swear to god, say something now, and they'll scrap your brain off the side walk" he says to Colton who almost explodes from desire to say something after Steve's last declaration.

"I wasn't sure what to do" she says quietly, her voice shaking with pain and regret "I was unprepared the whole... do you think I didn't want to...?"

"I don't know what to think..." he says, looking at her desperately "... I guess we weren't in the same place..."

"Steve I..."

"Why are you crying?" Danny asks Colton when he and Chin come towards them, seeing Steve and Kono looking intently at each other and the prisoner, held by Steve at gun point, sniffling and emotional.

"He only looks crazy" Chin says to Colton, grabbing him by his arm and pulling him towards the car "but he never actually killed a prisoner before..."

"Yet, he keeps trying..." Danny says helpfully. "Will you two stop fighting and come already? we have a new case."

()()()

"Are you awake?"

"No."

"Then wake up!"

"What the hell do you want from me? It's...7 am on a Saturday morning, you'd better be seriously hurt, dying, or waiting for me to bail you out of jail. Otherwise, I'm hanging up."

"I'm at home. Can you come? we need to talk."

"You're crazy. I'm hanging up."

"OK, just tell me what you did to him now."

"What?"

"He just came here to take Chin fishing. He looks like a ghost of himself, like he's running on fumes. What did you do to him?"

"..."

"Kono?"

"I'll be there in 15 minutes."

()()()

"The thing is, I didn't do anything. It was him" she sips from her coffee and plays absentmindedly with the coffee cake Malia had put in front of her. "We had a fight during one of the missions, and I accused him of being too emotional and of having a clouded judgment. He just went ballistic."

"You had a fight?" Malia smiles in relief "that's it?"

"What do you mean, that's it?" Kono looks at her in bewilderment "he called it off..."

"Called what off?" Malia asks with confusion.

"Well..." that's actually a very good question. She has no idea.

"You must have talked it through though..." Malia says it like it's the most natural thing in the world "didn't you?" she adds when she sees Kono's shameful look "you're joking! what were you doing all...ohhhh..."

"I made an awful mistake."

"It seems to be happening a lot with you two..."

"He thinks I only want him for the... you know..."

"And do you?"

"Want him for the sex?" of course she does. Let's face it, the sex was good. Fucking marvelous actually, the best sex she'd ever had. "No" she says shaking her head decisively "I want _him_. I want all of him, so bad..."

"I hate to repeat myself" Malia shrugs, smiling tenderly to her young friend "but I really think you should tell him that."

"He can't even bare looking at me anymore" she says, feeling the tightness in her throat when she realizes what she'd done.

"It's time you stopped whining, Kono" Malia says in a decisive tone "pick yourself up, and fight for what you want. You always gets what you want at the end. He fell in love with you for your strength, and your stubbornness, and your inability to take shit from anyone. It's time you start acting like yourself again."

Yeah. Malia's got a point there. She admits it. When was it that she transformed into this weak and fearful creature anyway? She will have to fight for him. And she can do it too. She can make him talk to her, sleep with her. Hell, she can make him marry her if she chose to.

Only... he and Chin will probably be back soon from their fishing trip, so maybe she should... go home now for a while. You know, to catch some sleep first. Especially if she's preparing for battle. It's the only reasonable tactical choice, here. Really... she'll do it tomorrow...

()()()

It's probably the wrong thing to do, to actually test her new assertive self on her hard headed mother. But the woman just called her, in fucking 6 am on a Sunday morning, to have a little chat and to invite her to dinner. Because, obviously, she has some new guy to introduce to her. She says introduce, but it's more a sort of an evaluation. She knows the drill, she makes them stand next to each other in the middle of the room while she sends them scrutinizing looks. She doesn't have a solid proof, but she'd bet her life, she's spending this time measuring her body for a potential wedding dress, and assessing their combined facial features for future grandchildren.

"No way mom" she says in a strict tone, she forgot she was capable of producing. "I'm not meeting this guy. Actually, I'm not meeting _any_ guy, ever. I already have a guy" at least she will have, when she'll get him to listen to reason.

"What guy?" her mother asks in a skeptical tone. Shit.

"It doesn't matter mom." Kono tries to contain the situation. "I won't tell you his name" she really want him to stay alive at this point, you see...

"Fine" for someone who tries to get her to bed with every non-relative male on the island, her mother sounds less than thrilled. "Bring him to dinner tonight, so we can meet this new boyfriend of yours" _boyfriend_? who said anything about a _boyfriend_? even though, come to think of it, it doesn't sound half bad, even when her mother says it in her most judgmental and suspecting tone.

"He's not really my boyfriend yet" she admits, ducking her head behind the wheel of Kally's car when she sees him getting out of his house and starts his morning run. "He kinda hates me at this point. Doesn't even talk to me" she sees him crossing the road, shirtless as always, and she feels the familiar tag in the pit of her stomach, and her mouth getting dry.

"What do you mean hate you? how can anyone hate you?" well... she'll be surprised... "He doesn't sound like a good guy for you, Kono. Who is he? maybe I _should_ meet him."

"He's a great guy, mom" Kono says trying to bring this way too premature conversation to conclusion "and you are definitely _not_ going to meet him at this point, he's already scared of you..." shit.

"When did I..."

"I'll call you back, mom" Kono cuts her midsentence, "and I'll bring him to meet you when the time comes." She'll have enough problems convincing him to take her back as it is, she doubts if re-introducing him to her mother's over bearing personality will serve as an incentive here.

()()()

It takes her ten whole minutes to get into his house. The lock is heavy and sophisticated, but she manages to overcome it eventually. She honestly thinks that the fact she manages to avoid shooting the annoying piece of metal shows great amount of restraint on her part.

She plans on making him breakfast which is easily said than done. She doesn't really know how to make breakfast, usually a rushed coffee and a half eaten piece of toast is good enough for her. For _him_, she will need to be more creative. She finds a pan and a bowl and tries to remember how exactly to make pancakes. She's drawing blank there, so she has to call Malia, and while she tries to avoid her cousin's wife's curious questions about her sudden outburst of domestication, she manages to get the right recipe. She manages to make about a dozen mildly scorched pancakes, by the time he's back.

"What are you doing here?" he asks when he catches her in his previously clean and organaized kitchen.

"Ahhhhmmmm... breakfast..."

"Why?"

"Ahhhhhmmm...beacause it's morning..."

"I'm pretty sure that's not what I mean by asking why."

"I wanted to talk to you. You were out, I had to wait, so I made breakfast. Look I've made pancakes" she picks up the plate before him.

"I didn't know you could make pancakes" he mumbles.

"Yeah" she smiles sheepishly "neither did I."

They stand there quietly, and he looks around him at the big mess she made of his kitchen, and the poor excuse of a breakfast she was able to produce, and he looks like he's trying to make sense of all of it, and she waits, and hopes...

"I'm sorry, Kono" he says eventually "I really think you should go now" he can't mean it, surely.

"Please, Steve, I..."

"No" he says decisively, shaking his head and raising his hands towards her "I'm done. I'm going to the shower now. I'll see you tomorrow, at work." he turns to walk upstairs, and she hears him getting into the shower, slamming the door behind him. Done? what the fuck does he mean by done? he's not done. She'll tell him when he's fucking done. She came here to talk, and she's gonna talk, and he'll hear what she has to say, even if she has to shout it into his cold dead corpse' ears. She charges upstairs, furious.

He has this stupid rule for short showers. She remembers Danny teasing him about taking only three minutes showers each time. So when he gets out of the shower, she is ready for him. She hides behind the door, and when he steps into the bedroom she jumps him from behind. She has surprise on her side, and he is already shaken by her unexpected invasion to his home, so maybe this is why she is able to drop him on the bed and pin him to the mattress in one swift move. They have a short battle, and he stupidly tries not to hurt her, so this is how she manages to handcuff his hands to the head of the bed. She tightens the cuffs, and examines their strength, before she is straddling his waist triumphantly. The towel that was hanging on his waist after the shower is lost in the short battle, so by the end of the struggle she has him pinned down beneath her, short of breath, naked, and angry as hell.

()()()

"What are you doing?" he looks at her wildly.

"I want to talk."

She leans forward and holds his arms tightly. "I thought you wanted to talk too, that this is why you broke it off."

"There's nothing to talk about, anymore" he says, breathing fast and shallow breaths.

"I really think you should hear me out" she says, sliding her hands slowly from his arms to his chest "because I think you got it all wrong."

"I..." he stops and hisses sharply when she pinches his nipples suddenly, causing a sharp pain that goes straight down to his groin.

"It's true, I was a little scared at the beginning" she says painting random circles on his chest and abdomen "I was overwhelmed with the intensity of it all, and I behaved badly."

His only answer is a quiet moan, as she changes her position on his waist, and leans forward again, nuzzling his neck tenderly.

"I want to be with you, all the time" she says, as she moves her head to touch with her lips all over his face. She can feel his body responds to her nearness, as his thighs tighten as he bucks slightly against her. "This is what I wanted to tell you. So you'll know. It was never only about the sex..."

They remain like this for a while, and she can feel his heart racing under her touch. His warm body trembles with every breath, and his wrists are white from the pressure he puts on the handcuffs.

"Kono..." he breathes eventually, his voice husky and dry.

"Yes, Steve?" she asks levelly, while she is tenderly kissing his lips "anything else you want to talk about?"

"Probably" he swallows hard "even though, I can't think of anything specific right at this moment..." he raises his head unexpectedly and captures her lips with a short violent kiss "maybe we should try again... you know... later... _after_ the sex..."

You see? she was totally right, when she told her mother he was a great guy. Because he proved himself to be a very reasonable man, allowing her to explain everything like that, almost without any objections. When she thinks about it, it really didn't take her all that long to bring him to get his priorities right. All and all a very open minded, and flexible guy. Well... he had to be... flexible she means... in order to do all those crazy things he did to her... because, let's face it, it isn't easy even without the handcuffs...


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: My thanks to all of you who read this story, the ones who favored, followed and especially to you who took the time to leave me your kind words. Your reviews made me happy and inspired, and made me laugh. **

**This will be the last chapter in this fic. **

**Someone asked about a sequel to Crahing, I'm still thinking about it... I will try my best to write one more fic before the begining of the 3rd season. No matter what, I will never write Steve- Catherine fics, I don't care what they do in the new season. I draw the line here... **

**Thank you all, please let me know what you think, it always keeps the stream of ideas flowing... **

**R. **

* * *

"I'm a SEAL, you see?" he tells her, as he stands in the kitchen, barefoot, wearing only an old used pair of jeans.

"Oh... I can see, baby..." she smiles from behind him. She is sitting on the opposite counter, wearing his tee shirt and her underwear, admiring the movements of the muscles of his broad back as he cuts the meet. He turns towards her, when he hears the joyful tone in her voice, smiling despite of himself.

"I'm serious, Kono. Will you please concentrate?"

"Sorry, babe" she tries to focus. He doesn't make it easy for her though, especially when she can still see the straight red lines she made with her finger nails, on his bare torso. It makes her have those delicious flashbacks from a few hours ago, the kind that goes straight to her lower belly.

"All I'm saying is, I'm a SEAL. I need things to be clear and well defined. I need rules."

"Rules? you need rules?" she asks with surprise "you can't see a rule without breaking it."

"That's not the point" he says patiently.

"So, what is the point?" she sighs loudly, biting her lower lip when he bends over to pick a small potato that falls on the floor, giving her a perfect view of his backside in the process."

"Stop it, Kono" he turns around again "I'm trying to have a serious conversation, here" he sees her licking her lips when she sees his bare chest, covered with nail scratches and teeth bites. "For god sake's woman. I'm going to put a shirt on."

()()()

They eat lunch together. He's a really good cook, and he spends a lot of time explaining about the products, and the timings, and encourages her taste a few of the spices he used and tell him what she thinks. She doesn't really listen, it's too confusing, and he uses words that are not even in her vocabulary, but he is so excited and happy, and she didn't see him that relaxed since, well... ever. He looks like a little boy.

"Now what?" he asks in annoyance when he sees her smiling weirdly at him, again.

"Nothing" she shrugs, and goes back to her plate.

"It's too hot in here to be wearing anything else" he points out "so, at least pretend like you're not staring."

()()()

When they clear the plates, and he stands at the sink washing the dishes, she steps behinds him and holds him forcefully against her. She lays her head between he's shoulder blades and inhales contentedly.

"Thank you for lunch, Steve" she mumbles to his back.

"Sure, sweetheart" he says quietly, not stopping what he's doing. "Why don't you wait in the lanai, and I'll join you there in a minute?"

He finds her sprawled tiredly on the only Adirondack chair he has there, and he makes a mental note to buy a new one, now that hopefully, she will be staying more. He picks her up, making her smile at him with surprise, and lies in her place, positioning her on top of him.

"Is it OK for you?" he asks when she rearranges herself around him, and makes some small contented moans he already starts to recognize.

"It's OK for me" she says reassuring him "actually, much more comfortable this way."

They spend the rest of the day in practically the same distance from one another. Luckily, the phone never rings.

()()()

When she has to go give Kally's car back and from there, to her home, they stand in his doorway, kissing slowly and thoroughly for a long long time.

"Can we tell Danny and Chin?" he asks quietly, when they finally break for air.

"hmmm... is it OK if we wait a little?" she asks carefully, and he tries not to be too disappointed by her gentle request. "I know you need things to be clear and well defined" at least he knows she'd listened, "and we will. I promise. But... can you give me some time? just to... define you for myself first...?" if she thinks he is able to deny her anything, she must be delusional. Her beautiful brown eyes look at him with hope and sincerity, and he can only bow his head in agreement. "Thanks, babe" she kisses him quickly, and escapes from the automatic movement of his arms when he tries to keep her there with him "I'll see you at work tomorrow."

He watches her getting into the car and feels an unrecognizable pang in his stomach. He can't be sure, but he thinks he might be missing her already. Thank god his SEAL buddies are not here to see him acting so foolishly. Thank god Danny isn't here, too...

()()()

"What's wrong with you?"

"Again? really?" he looks sideways at his partner shaking he's head. "Honestly, Danny, I have no idea why you even bother asking me this. We both know that even though there is absolutely _nothing_ wrong with me, you'll spend the next thirty five minutes explaining to me that there is..."

"You're in a good mood."

"I don't follow."

"You smiled to the cop at the murder scene, you helped the suspect up after you knocked him down when we took him in, you slowed down for two different pedestrians when they tried to cross the road instead of almost running over them like always, and worst of all, you paid for our coffees!"

"OK... Is this a bad thing, now?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Well..."

"Don't answer that, you Neanderthal prick"

"Danny, you were all over my case a few days ago when you claimed I was depressed. You're supposed to be thrilled."

"Thrilled? to have a partner with this kind of mood swings? why do you think I got divorced? so I don't have to deal with fucking mood swings anymore, that's why. For crying out loud, it's like you're having your period or something."

"A. I am not having mood swings. I was upset, and now I'm better. It's a well documented phenomenon, even in men, and B. Have you just suggested I am having my period, and compared me to your ex-wife? because I've put people in hospital beds for less..."

"Are you mad now?"

"Suggest that I'm acting like a girl again, and you wouldn't have to wonder."

"Thank god. It actually feels much more natural this way..."

()()()

He shouldn't open his door without looking. Yes, definitely. And he shouldn't open the door without his gun in his hand. But he really thought, or rather hoped, it was her. It was only later that he realized, they actually didn't make any plans, and that when he went to see the governor around six PM, she was still working in her office with Chin. But he was hoping, so when there was a knock on the door a few hours after he got home, he opened it without thinking. Only it wasn't her. It was her mother, and it didn't look like it's going to end well.

"Er, hello."

She doesn't even answer, pushes between him and the door and gets inside the house. He can recognize the gesture. Her daughter was doing the same thing, at the time. Must be a family trait.

"Can I help you with anything?" he asks dryly, when he finds her in the living room scanning her surroundings suspiciously, holding her gaze on the few pictures he has of his family.

"Aren't you going to ask me to sit down?" she asks eventually, looking at him head to toe with a tight expression.

"I was about to ask you to come in, when you simply barged in here. I figured further invitations would be redundant."

"Don't be rude, young man" she warns, taking a sit on his couch. He situates himself in front of her on one of the chairs, and crosses his arms and legs.

"My daughter is under the impression that you hate her."

"I doubt that." he says evenly. Kono is a good detective, she can read people very well. There's no way she'd interpret his actions as hateful. You don't stick your tongue into someone else's throat for an hour, (and he tries to keep it PG, here) if you hate them. At least he normally doesn't.

"She said you don't talk to her."

"I certainly _do_ talk to her. Why don't we give her a call, I'll tell her you're here, and you can hear us talking" he reaches for his phone.

"Of course you are not going to call her, she will be furious." He wonders who will she be furious with, her mother or him. He can't really be sure at this point, so he puts his phone away.

"What do you want from me?"

"Ideally, I would want you to try to remember you are her boss, and not sleep with her." Yes. They might be having a problem with this one, actually.

"Look, I don't..."

"Don't bother to deny it" she tells him, reaching for the corner of the coffee table, and touching a small scratch in the wood. He can totally relate to that, that little scratch and the damage to the furniture drives him nuts every time he sees it, too. "In a more realistic way, I came to see who you are, and to see for myself what my little girl sees in you."

"Look" he stands up, and motions to her to do the same "my... _connection_ to your daughter is between us. And I certainly not going to talk to you about it behind her back" obviously he is not that brave. "I don't know what she'd told you about us..."

"Don't be ridiculous" she dismisses "sit back down. She didn't tell me anything. I had to guess for myself. Apparently, I have guessed right. I'm only going to ask a few questions" Something tells him he had gone through interrogations training series that were easier than what's on her mind.

"So, you are a haole, I can see that."

"No. I was born on the island" he says quickly, but his smug expression with her mistake is short lived.

"You are a navy SEAL."

"Lieutenant commander."

"Obviously, very good looking."

"That's... well..."

"You keep your house very clean and tidy."

"Always" well, unless her messy daughter is here. Then all hell breaks loose...

"And you're older."

"Yes."

"So you must be looking for something serious. Marriage, children..."

"Yes, I do. Look I don't th..."

"Don't worry, you're doing fine" she smiles encouragingly. That's nice of her, but he really thinks Kono would freak out.

"I don't think Kono would appreciate..."

"My daughter is a beautiful, sweet and amazing young lady" she certainly is "but she's young, and reckless, and a hard head who doesn't know what's good for her." that's one way to put it. "I want to see her happy, and married, and I don't really care in what order."

"Wait, what are you...?"

"Leave it to me, commander" she looks like she came to a decision. "You just show up to the luau on Sunday. Your all team is invited, of course. You'll also have the opportunity to meet all of Kono's family, which she neglected to introduce to you last time at Chin ho's."

"Yeah, we weren't really talking at the time..."

"We'll fix it then. There are her 56 cousins, her father and her five brothers. You'll be fine, just leave it all to me" she taps his arm reassuringly as she shows herself out.

When he closes the door behind her he wonders how exactly she got him to talk about marrying her lovely daughter, when he can hardly keep the girl in the same house with him. He also doesn't know for sure how is it that she was able to make him come to the mass luau she is organizing, even though it sounds like a nightmare. He would have asked Kono, how her mother does this mind game thing of hers, but he truly believes that he should keep their highly inappropriate meeting from the woman, for as long as he can. Mainly for safety reasons. _His_ safety, if you want to be specific.

When he goes up to his bedroom, he stops suddenly in the middle of the staircase. "Hang on" he says to the wall in front of him "did she just say _five brothers_?!"

()()()

He tries to make her come with him to the luau. He asks her repeatedly, to please, please go there together. He is so desperate, he even plays dirty and asks her to go with him while they take a shower together, and she's naked, pressed to the bathtub beneath him, and he's inside of her. She still says no, but she makes that special movement with her legs, the one when she's anchoring them high on his back, the one that drives him crazy every single time, when she says it, so at the end, he's not as offended as he's supposed to be.

()()()

This is why he is standing in the middle of the garden of the Kalakaua household, with Danny and Grace by his side looking with barely concealed mortification, at the big gathering around him. It looks bigger than what was going on at Chin's, like the whole family had multiplied since then. He wonders if it has to do with the hostess, and with what appears to be a generalized inability to refuse her.

Chin and Malia are swallowed quickly by the chattering crowd, Grace is off to run around with the other children and Danny is drawn to the enormous amount of food like it was a big magnet, so he remains there alone, trying to avoid the curious looks he earns from all the family members around him. It was much easier before, when Mary Ann was there with him, and he spent most of his time and energy avoiding Kono.

He sees Kono standing in the middle of the garden with four older Hawaiian ladies around her, and they speak to her at the same time. She is taller than them, and stronger, but they all keep chattering and pushing her around. I'ts amazing, but her can see how she shows an uncharacteristic amount of restraint. It is quite disconcerting, because they all shout and talk animatedly, and he's not sure if they all annoyed with her or what. When she senses him watching her curiously, she mouth to him "you see?", and he realizes that this is why she didn't want him to come with her in the first place. She acts bravely, and pleasantly, nodding vigorously to the endless stories they tell her and articulate her condolences and understanding to quite an alarming amount of misfortunate events they are telling her about. When one of them raises her skirt, and reveals a red, swelled, partially bandaged leg, he thinks to himself, that protecting him from this, is probably her way to show how much she cares.

()()()

He is brought out of his musing by the voice of conversation around him. When he turns his head, he sees five tall Hawaiian young men, standing around him looking at him curiously.

"She said he was tall, but I think he's shorter than Kapali" he looks between them, wonders who Kapali is.

"Maybe she meant, old" Ouch, that's was uncalled for.

"You think he surfs?"

"Has to surf, she wouldn't touch him unless he surfed" Makaio says decisively.

"Doesn't look so tan though" Nohokai is the skeptical one, probably got that from his mother.

"Never thought she would go with a haole..."

He crosses his arms defensively, looking at the five young men around him. They are all tall, and two of them are even taller than him. They are all tanned and fit, and look suspiciously similar to one another. Two of them are practically identical. He estimates their ages to be between 15 and 25, and they all speak simultaneously about him, as if he's not even there. What's going on with this family, anyway?

"Did you throw a grenade at a witness to get him to talk?" Akela asks, while the rest of them nod beside him. They seem to be particularly interested in the answer to this question.

"I didn't throw it, I tied it to his door, because he refused to open it when I asked him to" they take the time to absorb this piece of information for a while, and when they do, they appear to be quite satisfied with his explanation.

"Did you threaten to throw a suspect off the roof? Kale's question, also seems to earn the unequivocal support of his brothers.

"I didn't threaten to do so" Steve answers thoughtfully "It was more like a promise really, and I _would have_ thrown him, unless for your cousin's interference."

"Figures" Nohokai says nodding solemnly "Chin ho always ruins all the fun. He made Kale and Akela apologize after they painted the principle's dog yellow, and shaved its fur to look like a buttercup.

"The dog's name was buttercup, we thought it was appropriate" Akela explains "mom was furious."

"I'd bet" Steve says slowly, looking intently at the two young identical surfers who stand before him.

"Dad and Kono thought it was quite funny, though" Kale adds, and Steve finds it quite expected.

"I hope you realize what you're getting into..." Kapali, the eldest, says crossing his arms.

"What do you mean?"

"Mom says you want to marry Kono."

"Let's say that I am, just for the sake of argument" he says it carefully, because he has no idea what they're talking about, and he wasn't even thinking about marriage before their mother forced it into his head.

"You're a navy SEAL, I suppose you must be very brave..." Kapali says thoughtfully "but dating Kono, that's not for everyone" The last few weeks, which took all of his energy is a proof of that, he totally admits it.

He wants to answer. To tell them that he's not so easily intimidated, but there's a big commotion when Kono's mother, Kono, and a very big older man who must be her father come to stand around them with quite a few more people. It's unfortunate really, that Kono hears her brother's last statement, because she gets ballistic. She starts shouting at the five of them, tells them all to stay away from him, and leave him alone. When her mother tells her to take it easy and explains that they're only trying to look after her, and that she did the same when she went to visit him in his house, recently, it practically makes her to explode.

()()()

So basically, Kono is standing there in the middle of the garden and explains loudly to everyone around, that it's none of their god damn business who Steve is, and what he is like, because if she chose him to be her _boyfriend_, they should count on her that she made the right choice. Says they should be careful, and there's no point in trying to scare him off, or make him feel unsecure, because he _knows_ that she loves him, and she will never let them do anything to him, not that they could, anyway, even if they tried, because obviously, he's a one badass navy SEAL, and he can eat all her five brothers for breakfast and have the rest of her cousins for desert. And she turns to her mother, and tells her to back off, because as she can clearly see, she was quite able to make the right choice on her own, and get, who appears to be, probably, the best man of the island, and if she doesn't leave them alone and stop messing with them, there will be _no grandchildren_ for her, so she'd better watch her step!

There's a deep tense silent, when she finishes her little speech, and she takes a deep breath and shakes her hair behind her shoulders, looking pointedly at everybody, before she pauses on Steve's stunned face. She comes to stand in front of him, examining him carefully and asks him, conversationaly "Is this clear enough for you?" so he only nods silenltly, because it really is.

"Good" she smiles broadly and puts her arms around his neck, and stands on her tip toes, kissing him. He kisses her back, and strangely enough, he doesn't really care that all her family is looking at them, and they deepen the kiss, carried away with their new discovered circumstances, and he thinks he sees her mother smiles triumphantly from the corner of his eye. He really couldn't be happier, he thinks, really. Only...

"I knew it" Danny shouts indignantly from behind him "you uninhibited child molester. You lied to me, and you made the sweet girl lie to me too."

"I told you what will happen if you sleep with her... " Chin adds warningly from next to him.

He looks at Kono, when he hears them, and she looks back with a questioning look, because they really care about their team, after all. But he presses his lips together decisively, before he leans to kiss her again. He knows they're upset, and he's sorry, but unfortunately, they just gonna have to suck it up this time.


End file.
